


Sonic Forces: an unexpected hero

by AleMazz11ITA



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Torture, Brutalities of war, Gen, Mentally challenged Protagonist, Original Character Death(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychological Warfare, Sadness, Slightly censored words, To Be Continued
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 22:30:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21345811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AleMazz11ITA/pseuds/AleMazz11ITA
Summary: A mentally challenged teen is unwillingly dragged to the war declared by the Eggman Empire against the whole world. With the help of a mysterious creature, Eggman manages to cause fear and anxiety to anyone who meets the being, before mercilessly killing them. The protagonist becomes a testimony of war, which shocks him at first. But, then, filled with a spirit of justice for the fallen, he joins the Resistance, where he meets Sonic and many other characters, heroes or other civilians, ready to help him without giving him prejudices on his psychological condition. This way, he sets out on a mission to avenge the fallen and, at the same time, to find his purpose in life.
Kudos: 2





	1. An anomaly in the City

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Sonic Forces rewrite, which focusses on the character of the Avatar (the OC). Therefore, the story will be only from the Avatar's and the Resistance's point of views, therefore excluding the Episode Shadow DLC. In addition, this story has A LOT MORE backstory to the Avatar, which I decided to make psychologically weak in order to make the challenge for him stronger. For example, I added more facts before and at the very beginning of the war, which add traumatic experiences to the protagonist (Yes, I am sadist towards my protagonists). Moreover, there will be more OCs that will take part in the Resistence and won't be just about Sonic & friends. In other words, the Avatar is the main focus of the story but, once he joins the Resistance, the focus shifts to the whole Resistance.  
Finally, I'm going to say that the story so far was written in a month and Chapter 3 is extremely long, so be prepared for a long read.  
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

The bustling City, where over 1.5 million animals shared the lovely pedestrian paths, parks, the busy streets, the Red Gate Bridge and a wonderful sea that was seemingly infinite… A word that would soon make even the bravest shiver in fear. But, at that moment, everyone loved to tell that word and slogan to the many tourists that would visit the city: its streets were some of the most beloved in the whole planet, where you could enjoy long walks and get to know the kind inhabitants in the many shops that gave life to the whole city.

Despite that, not everyone liked to walk in the middle of these crowded, but stunning paths, and wouldn’t even dream of starting an informal conversation with the owners of these shops. One of those people was Alexan Fairbanks, a 16-years-old greyish wolf who lived about 13 kilometres (8 miles) from the city, in a house isolated from the rest, built about halfway up a hill, which was only accessible thanks to a 500 m-long, steep dirt road, hidden from the main road by trees. He lived with his brother, Axelain Fairbanks, who was 3 years older than him, and his parents, two wolves named Marta Ianni and Lorenz Fairbanks.

Even if they lived far from the City, they were pretty well-known there: Marta worked in an insurance company which, according to local surveys, gave the best policies, and was beloved by the clients and her boss, while his father was the executive leader of the city branch of one of the biggest banks in the region and he was in the position of having affairs with some of the most well-known people of the whole planet, like presidents and internal organizations, while also donating millions of dollars to well-known NGOs and scientists who, in exchange, would give him huge personal advantages. Axelain, on the other hand, was well known for totally different reasons, since he would often be seen around the city making dangerous parkour tricks over trees, parks and even 5-stories high buildings. He wasn’t a bad person, heck, he wouldn’t even dream of stealing from someone, but he surely was a daredevil, always looking for an adrenaline rush. In addition, he hosted an important channel on social media, where he would show incredible parkour tricks. Because of that, he was noticed by the military, where Axelain had started training to become a soldier 3 months earlier. Just for the adrenaline. But he wasn’t that bad, he would always rank around 7th place in each physical test, and had some sympathy for his fellow soldiers, but he was a hothead and would rarely stay still for more than a minute, which could put him in danger in eventual reconnaissance or civilian rescue missions.

Alexan, however, was a real anomaly: despite being calm and collected at home, often studying something, he hated going to the city and always felt extremely uncomfortable and in extreme pain around people, whether he was in a big and comfortable lobby or in the middle of Park Avenue during the summer. No one knew his true passion and everyone found him awkward, since for the last 3 years, every time he would have to go the city, he would become uncontrollable, having total meltdowns in the middle of the streets: he would scream nonsense, attracting the attention of all those around him. At one point, the situation got so bad that his worried parents brought him to a psychiatrist, the best in the whole planet, but even she was at a loss of words: that wasn’t any of the known psychological illnesses… It looked a mixture of many of those and that was such a unique case that the psychiatrist couldn’t give Alexan a therapy.

What was known, however, was when it all started…

4 years earlier, Alexan’s old house was robbed. Before that night, Alexan was just like any other cub in the whole city: he used to love going to the park, playing with the other kids and going shopping with his family. That night, however, everything changed: he had trouble sleeping due to an important test the day after and, at 2:35 a.m., he went to the living room to try to catch some sleep. All of a sudden, while he was looking for something, maybe a comfortable place to lie down, he saw 5 or 6 figures moving around his house: one of them, someone who had heterochromia iridum, was seemingly giving orders to the others, whispering, while the others were going around his house quietly, opening every closet and looking in every angle.

But they also noticed him and one of them, the one who was whispering to the others, quickly reached the young Alexan. Suddenly, the wolf had a red, long sword less than ¼ of an inch from his neck. He could feel the sword right on his throat, even gulping would cut it.

Whoever was wielding that sword was just behind him and whispered in his ear, with a deep voice: “If you scream… kid… I will make sure that’s the last thing you’ll do...”

So, Alexan kept quiet and didn’t do anything, as he watched helplessly his whole house being raided, shaking violently, as the figure held the cub’s head up and kept touching very gently with the sword Alexan’s throat, showing he wasn’t joking and would slit the cub’s head if he made any sounds. Alexan felt the strange metal touching his neck: what was that? Surely, though, it was deadly. A few, but very long minutes later, when the figure’s mates were done, the leader pushed the kid on the sofa and left with the loot. All Alexan could see in the darkness were some sort of long waves coming out of the leader’s head, like waves on a windy day on the sea. Following that, he just stood there, on the sofa, crying silently, and looking at all the damage that the ruthless criminals had done: $40.000 worth of goods were stolen and an additional $10.000 had to be spent due to the damages, but it was impossible to calculate the damage to Alexan’s childhood and future.

For hours he just cried and cried: he tried to say something, but words wouldn’t come out of his mouth. He just stood there, still, curled up like a hedgehog. His parents found him like that when they woke up, 4 hours later, with Alexan still crying. His parents didn’t ask him anything, they were just shocked, without even noticing the damage.

1 hour later, when the whole family was getting ready to bring their children to school (and to report the robbery to the police), Alexan refused.

“I’m… I’m afraid...”, he muttered.

“Afraid of what?”, asked his mother, worried. “Does it have to do with last night’s robbery?”

Alexan nodded slightly.

“What is it, Alexan?”

“I… I...” He was about to start crying again,

His father intervened, trying to reassure the child: “Alexan, I know it’s brutal to get robbed, but don’t worry, we’ll get everything back to normal.”

But that didn’t work. It clearly wasn’t due to the stolen goods, but due to something else.

“He...” was the only thing Alexan was able to say.

“He who?”, asked the mother.

The answer was just sobs.

“Look, son, we need to get ready for school.” Intervened the father, looking at his watch.

“Yes… sorry...”, said Alexan before getting ready for school.

Even if he was destroyed or had a high fever, he would still go to school, because, unlike the other kids, he understood the importance of it. But, some things changed dramatically.

Ever since that fateful night, Alexan’s already impressive school marks improved substantially, but his relationships with the others took a massive hit: he started talking less with his classmates and would rarely laugh at the jokes his classmates would tell him, but he never told his parents about it, since he would just talk about marks and what they had done that day. One day, though, when his parents went to talk with the head teacher, they learned everything that their son had never told them. Well, almost everything… “Everyone, including the teachers, finds the behaviour of your son very awkward. Sir, ma’am, he doesn’t talk with his classmates any more. He doesn’t ask for help, he never looks at his classmates, he never stays with them, even during recess, he rarely smiles, scolds whoever makes a joke by saying it is inappropriate to make jokes in a place like a school and he only talks to the teacher during oral exams. He’s a role model during lessons, always takes notes, never speaks out of context, but…” What he was about to say almost made him cry, too. “He has meltdowns… almost every day… during recess… and trips… he becomes… like… uncontrollable, possessed... he screams… hides in the bathroom… and screams… like they’re torturing him... and… worst of all… he violently smashes his head… with his hand… all of a sudden…” He then took a deep breath. “We’re doing our best to help him: he’s followed by another teacher during every lesson, but, I know you’re very well educated people, and I know you’d never have a son like this, so… I fear... something destroyed his mind, he needs help… from you… He’s only 12, for God’s sake! He’ll hardly reach his 20s at this rate!”

At first, the parents didn’t believe him, they couldn’t even imagine such a young child losing his mind like that. For months, they thought they were right. But then, all of a sudden, they saw what the head teacher had described them.

“Mom, my head hurts!”, exclaimed Alexan on Park Ave one May afternoon.

“Would you like to have a bit of medicine? I have it here.”, asked Marta kindly.

Alexan’s response wasn’t, though, as kind. “Get me out of this mess! I can barely breathe!” He slowly started panting, he felt the adrenaline flowing through his head. His tone was also changing, becoming a bit deeper, as if he was holding something in.

Lorenz intervened: “Just a bit more of patience, Alexan! Keep calm, we’ll soon be home...”

“Hey, Marta! Look at those sweatshirts in this store! They look gorgeous. Mum, can I buy one?”, interrupted Axelain.

“Sure, Axelain. But be quick. Alexan needs to study… for the 15th time.”

She didn’t see, however, Alexan, who started to cry a little bit, before he suddenly stopped the chatter of the many animals on the whole avenue.

“GET ME OUT OF HEREEEEEEEE!”

Many people jumped due to the sudden scream, including Marta, who noticed he had started shaking violently.

“IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!”

“Alexan! What’s gotten into you!?” asked his mother, surprised.

Up until that point, Alexan was holding hands with his parents, but suddenly, he started pulling both hands in order to get free from their hands. He’d never been strong, but that day, he was pulling with such a strength it could tear off a muscle!

“ALEXAN! ALEXAN!” Lorenz tried to bring his son back to normality.

“NO… PLEASE! DON’T DO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!” Alexan screamed, crying fountains. “LET ME GO! PLEASE, LET ME GOOOOOOO!” He then pulled hard and got free of both friendly hands.

He started running, bumping into people, without a destination, for about 500 m. At one point, he sat near a plant and started hitting it with incredible violence.

With the situation starting to get out of control, passer-byes started to intervene, trying to help the now uncontrollable Alexan. Some people used kind words, some others tried to hold his hands, but they all failed: the first were covered by his painful screams that didn’t make any sense: “I WON’T DO IT! I SWEAR I WON’T!” “PLEASE, PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE!”

The others, were either bitten or scratched by the crazy wolf. In the mess, some police officers who were on foot patrolling the avenue intervened, trying to divide the crowd from Alexan. But Alexan refused to accept the help from the police officers: “LEAVE ME ALOOOOOONE! GET AWAY FROM ME, GET AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!” His rational thoughts were held back from the adrenaline and his headache. Reinforcements soon arrived and, after 15 minutes of pure panic and chaos, the situation was put back under control. At that point, an ambulance also intervened and, in the end, through the words of the policemen and the medics, he was now back to how he was before the sudden meltdown.

“What…what… happened?” asked the confused wolf.

“Please come with us, you’ll be safe from those who bother you.” said a policeman kindly.

“Where… are my parents?” He looked around, trying to understand what had happened: he wasn’t aware of the situation he had caused

As soon as he asked, his family arrived.

“I’m… I’m sorry… Marta… Lorenz...” he said, sobbing.

At that point, his mother collapsed: her son looked really weak, almost like a dead body, and that words made her feel extremely badly. She felt like she hadn’t acted correctly. His father, on the other hand, wondered how his son could’ve ended up like that… and why it happened to him.

Following that, Marta and Lorenz couldn’t look the other way any more: their son needed immediate help. So, they asked the best psychiatrist on the planet, Dr. Freudir.

“Alexan, please tell me how you feel around people.” asked the psychiatrist at one point during the conversation, kindly.

“Dreadful...” answered Alexan, sighing: he always hated being like that and admitting it made him feel a bit embarrassed.

“Could you please elaborate?”

“I… I feel like… my… personal space… if you know what I mean… is… violated...” the wolf explained, slowly.

“I see… When did it all start?”

“December 17th.” Was the immediate answer.

“What happened that day?”

Alexan kept silent and he started crying.

“If you feel uncomfortable, you may not answer the question…” added the psychiatrist.

“No… it’s OK… don’t worry…” the wolf interrupted.

“That’s fine. Now, back to the personal space...”

Alexan elaborated on that, but he didn’t feel at ease, so she asked: “Do you feel safe here?” She was kind of worried, she felt like something was making Alexan uncomfortable. She was stunned: she’d never thought the conversation would go on like that because that wasn’t even close to her planned conversations that were based on the symptoms Alexan’s parents had described her, since that wasn’t Asperger’s, or Autism, or even Bipolar Disorder… that was a unique case she had to find an answer for. For Alexan and his family.

“No… He knows...” He was shaking in fear.

“He… who?”

“The… The...” The word wouldn’t come out of his mouth.

“Who? Who are you afraid of?”

“...the...”

“...the?”

“...Can I… whisper it?”

“Sure.”

He then whispered: “D...D...Devil...” That red glowing sword reminded him of the colour of Hell… and that waves… had to be snakes, like Medusa’s hair. But he didn’t say any of these things, or anything else, for that matter: he fell silent, totally silent, shaking a little bit in fear, looking around, in fear. Just like that, he didn’t answer any other questions… he just kept looking around himself… especially the windows and the doors…

So, Freudir failed to find a cure and to give a reason for that strange behaviour and, soon enough, the situation quickly deteriorated: Alexan started refusing to go out, even to go to school, and he would spend the nights in the living room, the lights on and every window in his sight. At this point, his parents knew they couldn’t stay in the busy City any more and moved to a big house outside of the city, hidden from the rest of the world and enforced with the most innovative alarm systems.

Thanks to that, Alexan’s situation improved greatly since he moved, having less meltdowns at home and school and having learnt how to deal with his illness, but, at that point, he only trusted his family and the teachers, since he always showed closure towards strangers and even classmates that he had known for years. Despite all of that, he was getting ready to go to sleep and start another school day, like many other nights.

But, there was still a question that hadn’t been answered yet: who robbed his house 4 years earlier and changed him for the rest of his life? Alexan, however, wasn’t really looking for an answer and it would take many more months before the answer would come, against his will. The path to that answer, though, would begin that night… and so would the conclusion of hundreds of thousands of lives… millions of stories getting cut short by a mad scientist and an even madder being…


	2. A new sunrise...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sudden emergency call in the night declares that the Eggman Empire has started invading the world. Alexan runs with most of his family and, to his surprise, Axelain asks him to join the Civilian Rescue Unit in order to help him get people to safety. Will he succeed?

“ERRRRRRRRGH! ERRRRRRRRRGH! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!”

It was 3 a.m. of an unusually cold early March night and Alexan was woken up by the sudden sound. A sound that he, however, seemed to be familiar with. After all, that sound was quite similar to his ringtone. Because of that, he didn’t feel scared and checked his phone calmly, where he noticed that it wasn’t his alarm that had woken him up. He then immediately lost all of his composure when he read what had woken him up: a notification that read “INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY WARNING!”.

Alexan was shocked and afraid: was it a storm coming to his lands? Was there a hurricane? Was a tornado forming? He was quite afraid of extreme weather events, as it wouldn’t take much to severely damage his house and his school. But why would they give out an alert in the middle of night? An extreme weather event is usually forecasted hours, if not days before it hits, so why would a warning that would wake everyone up be sent in the middle of night? In addition, he loved checking the weather forecast and was certain that that day would start off sunny and then, at about 8 a.m., clouds would gather up, before it would start raining at about 10 a.m. “What is it, then?” he asked himself, as he started to shake.

The answer was quick to come: when he clicked on the notification, he noticed it was something much worse than a tornado, it was something that needed to immediately warn all citizens of the planet. “WAR ALERT! WAR ALERT! THIS IS NOT A TEST! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A TEST! THE EGGMAN EMPIRE HAS JUST DECLARED WAR ON THE WHOLE PLANET! EVERY CITY SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AT EXTREME RISK OF INVASION! TAKE IMMEDIATE SHELTER, GET YOUR WISP GUNS READY AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY THE ICR (INTERNATIONAL CRISIS ROOM) ON ALL YOUR DEVICES! UPDATES WILL FOLLOW SHORTLY! THIS IS NOT A TEST!”

Indeed, his TV, laptop and phone all turned on, showing the logo of the ICR. All electronic equipment had been built in a way that, when there was an emergency broadcast, all devices that were off would turn on immediately.

“Alexan, we need to leave, NOW!” His mother burst into his room, her voice showing a lot of panic. “Gather quickly only what you really need and we’re leaving! Axelain needs to get to the barracks in the City now.”

“Wh…?” He couldn’t finish the question.

“I’ll explain everything later, just pack! Be ready in a minute! They’re already close!” She quickly said before going back in the living room.

Alexan’s mind went into total panic: he hated making decisions quickly because he always preferred considering every possibility in detail before making the right decision. In a minute, however, he couldn’t even consider one possibility! Plus, who were “they”? Were they the Death Egg Robots Sentinels, Doctor Eggman’s project that his father knew about thanks to his $10 million donation for another big project of the doctor that had to do with precious gems?

“Alexan, what are you doing!?” his father had asked one day, while Alexan was looking at blueprints. “Why the f*ck are you looking at my documents!?” he had exclaimed, shocked to see his son.

Alexan had shivered when he heard his father. “It’s… What…are…?”

“You wanna know what they are!? Fine.” Lorenz had answered, irritated. “It’s the latest project of a scientist that, in order to thank me for a donation, gave me these blueprints. There, is that good for you!?”

“...yes, pops...” Alexan had shivered with that answer.

Suddenly, something stopped his memories.

“Are you ready, ‘Xan?” asked his brother Axelain in an incredibly calm voice: he was used to living high tension situations and had learnt to control his adrenaline.

“...Yeah… I’m coming...” Alexan answered. There was no time to waste, so he decided to follow his heart and grabbed his laptop, glasses and a small microphone. When he went to the living room, he saw Marta and Axelain, but Lorenz was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Lorenz!?” Alexan asked. “Isn’t he coming with us!?”

Axelain answered quickly. “He’s staying here: he’s in the basement getting the Wisp guns. He’s gonna try defend our house. He told us to leave. Let’s go! They’re right behind this hill!”

Axelain and Marta quickly run to the car, but Alexan didn’t: he felt something was wrong. “’Xan, c’mon, bro, get moving! We’re gonna die here!”

Alexan, though, stayed still, mouthing something…

“Let’s go!” Axelain went to pick him up and brought him to the car. Alexan didn’t resist at all, he kept moving his mouth… “Why…? Why…?” he was silently thinking. That was such a sudden break to his daily life that it had made him kind of shocked and, at that point, he knew the daily life he would live in the following months would be much, much different, and that hurt him really badly. No more school, no more studying, no more fun, no more interesting activities… When he got in the car, he was crying a little bit.

“Alexan, I know it’s tough, but we have to leave. Also, Lorenz will be OK. I trust him, he’s a very good shooter.” Marta said, reassuringly.

Alexan didn’t answer back.

“Why…? Why did Lorenz do that…?” That was the only thing he was thinking about. The others didn’t know what he was thinking, he was hiding his fears really well.

For a moment, there was a deafening silence. But then, Marta hit the accelerator and started driving the dirt road like a professional rally driver. When they reached the road, they started driving south-west, towards the City. In the rear-view mirror, the family saw huge and small robots surrounding their house. Was Lorenz going to be OK? Alexan, though, was optimistic, as something came up in his mind: even if that must’ve been at least 25 robots of different sizes, that blueprints really could help Lorenz survive against the robot invasion.

10 minutes later, the now maybe single mother and her two sons reached the barracks. It was located about 3 miles from the city centre, in the middle of corn fields.

“Wait here, mom. It’ll take a minute.” said Axelain as he was about to launch himself out of the car. However, he didn’t and added something. “’Xan, why don’t you come with me? I’m gonna show you how barracks look like. You asked it one day, I’m keeping that promise.”

Alexan hesitated, since entering a place with many strangers would easily put him on the merge of a meltdown.

“’Xan, my fellow soldiers are great people: they’re nice, kind...” Axelain added, trying to be reassuring.

“And if you do, Alexan, you can face your fears and improve as a person. You always said that to me.” Marta interrupted with a smile.

“...Fine. I’m coming.” Alexan said: he had been convinced.

He got out of the car and arrived with his brother at a door. It was a huge, steel door, with barbed wire running on top of it. Alexan felt a bit of fear seeing the mighty door, as he thought he wasn’t meant to go there as a simple civilian: it felt like he was about to enter a place where very few had been. Before that, however, there was a small checkpoint with a soldier inside. Axelain reached the soldier, with Alexan following shortly behind.

“Fairbanks Axelain, cadet, SSN 574-34-3003” Axelain told the guard as he showed a special document released by the military.

“Perfect. And who’s with you?” The guard asked Axelain.

When Alexan heard that, he stepped back a little. He was afraid, the guard showed authority.

“’Xan, c’me here! Don’t be afraid. He’s just asking who you are. He’s not as evil as he looks!” Axelain told his little brother.

“...fine...” Alexan said, blushing a little, because his social awkwardness kicked in. “Fairbanks Alexan… Axelain’s brother...” he told the guard.

“May I see an ID card, please?” the guard asked.

“...Sure...” Alexan answered as he slowly gave the guard his ID card.

“OK… OK...” the guard said to himself as he looked at the document. He then looked at Axelain and asked: “Does he have mental issues?”

Axelain nodded.

“Does he know articles 14 and 15 of the ‘Mentally Challenged Act’?”

Alexan suddenly intervened, answering the question as if he had been asked by a teacher. “Article 14 prohibits the usage of any kind of firearm by mentally challenged people, while article 15 provides that, when entering military buildings, a mentally challenged subject shall be followed by at least 4 soldiers, all of which shall not be armed with any weapons.” He knew that law very well. After all, that law had important effects on him. Following that, he restarted speaking slowly to his brother: “I still remember… all of the… controversy…”, keeping like a thankful tone to his brother.

Indeed, there had been a huge controversy following the enactment of this act: mental hospitals and associations protested vibrantly, seeing it as a huge hinder to the growth of mentally challenged people, but the government answered that action had to be done following a tragic attack in a police station, where a mentally challenged person was brought after committing a crime earlier that day. Once there, he  suddenly lost his mind, stole a gun  and fir ed against  many police officers,  2 of which died soon after. Then, he tried running away with a police car, but he was shot in the legs and arrested. Following that, the judges gave  the criminal 20 years of  Involuntary Psychic Treatment, but the right-wing government felt that justice hadn’t been done for the killed police officers, so they passed that act that led to a 7-days strike of  the left-wing opposition,  those who worked with mentally challenged and a pacific demonstration through the streets of the City and Metropolis.  That, however, led to no changes and Alexan, like thousands of other people, had to endure an unfair treatment not only by officials, but also by normal citizens, who took the chance to use the law as a way to discriminate mentally challenged people. Axelain, however, always believed in Alexan and knew he would never commit an action similar to the criminal’s, so he harshly criticized those who would make fun of his little brother and spread his message of inclusion and positivity to his school, friends and  fellow soldiers .

“Don’t worry, ‘Xan, many soldiers know what to expect and are much more open towards you than other citizens.” Axelain added reassuringly.

Well, almost all of them…

“Cadet Fairbanks!” the general screamed as soon as he saw Axelain enter with his brother and 4 other soldiers. “Does this look like the time to bring your god-damn brother f*cking sightseeing!?” He was furious with Axelain and the young adult answered back: “It’s better to have 10 soldiers with a gun each than a soldier with 10 guns, isn’t it right, sir!? You always tell us that and then, when I f*cking bring someone, you totally ignore that saying! F*cking hypocrite!”

The other soldiers let out whistles and a few claps, while the General growled: “F*cking hell! If we weren’t at war, I would’ve kicked your sorry little ass out of here, Fairbanks! Sadly, though, I’ll need you, too! Why did you bring your brother today!?”

Axelain was sure with his answer: “Because he can help too!”

Alexan was just as surprised as the General. “What is wrong with you, Axelain!?” Alexan thought, while the General made his thoughts loud and clear: “And how!? He can’t wield weapons and he can’t be left alone without 4 soldiers! 4! God-damn! Soldiers! Soldiers who could be used for much better reasons than bringing a scared child around! Look at him, he’s shaking! How the f*ck can he help us!?”

Axelain didn’t hesitate and let out a great answer: “He can work with me in the Civilian Rescue Unit  (CRU) ! It isn’t required to bring weapons there, he can make an important difference bringing civilians to safety and I’ll personally look after him!”

“Yeah, sir! Fairbanks is right! If I’ll have to, I’d rather look after him and help hundreds of civilians, including this unlucky person, than die in the front lines!” Another soldier agreed.

Soon enough, the soldiers became ecstatic with Axelain’s idea and started showing sympathy towards the young adult. Overcome by the general excitement and  disapproval towards him, the General had to give in: “Fine! Fine! Fairbanks, I’ll let your younger brother work with you in the CRU, but you will be fully responsible of what happens to him or those who are following him during the rescue. If one of your fellow soldiers or a civilian dies or gets injured, you’ll be liable  and will have to sit in front of the Martial Court . Deal?”

“Deal, sir!” Axelain exclaimed before shaking hands with the general. The soldiers were all full of energy and that was perfect for the upcoming battles.

“Now! Assignments!” The General screamed between the energetic chatter of all the soldiers. He then gave out all assignments to the soldiers. Most notably, all cadets were put in the CRU and were tasked of getting civilians out of the eastern and northern neighbourhoods of the City. In the meantime, the other soldiers would fight in the front lines on the hills surrounding the City so as to try to repel the Eggman Empire’s offensive and give time to the CRU to evacuate as many civilians as possible to the many bunkers under the city. “OK, soldiers! For our country and our planet, we will repel this show of force from the enemy and we will show that...” Everyone joined in the chant: “YOU. WILL. NOT. MESS. WITH. US!” “FOR OUR PLANET!” screamed the general. “FOR OUR PLANET!” everyone repeated. Everyone, excluding Alexan, who just stood there, silent.

“What’s wrong, ‘Xan?” asked Axelain calmly.

“...Why did you do that…?” Alexan answered with another question.

“Because you always look after the others, even if they’re mean towards you, ‘Xan. You’re perfect for this kind of mission!” Axelain answered happily.

“What if… if I screw up?” Alexan was still worried. “You’ll end up in jail and…”

Axelain interrupted him: “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right. See, I’ve told you. You always look after the others. Plus, it’s impossible to screw up in this mission. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask me or one of my fellow men. They’ll be happy to help you!”

“I will...” Alexan said, quietly.

Following that, they got on a military truck and were driven to the eastern neighbourhoods of the City.

The eastern neighbourhoods of the City were often considered the worst, where tight, almost claustrophobic apartments and tight roads would alternate with eye-stabbing rectangular buildings, all of which were the exact same copy of the others. That was the poorest section of the city and one of the most crowded, with, according to estimates, 200.000 inhabitants. Crime was common, the police would often have to intervene there and the children had no future there. Following the evacuation order, 10.000 people defected to the Eggman Army in order to protest against the decay of their neighbourhood. Despite that, there were still as much as 190.000 people that had to be brought to the many bunkers in the area, including children and old people.

One truck arrived near what was considered the centre of the neighbourhood, a small square with a few trees in the middle and a church on a side. The other, the one where the Fairbanks brothers were, stopped in a residential area filled with rectangular buildings.

“OK, cadets, we have to bring many old people and children out of here!” The leader of that branch of operations exclaimed. It was 4:30 a.m., the sky was slowly turning dark blue, so everyone had to use a torch. “The most critical buildings are Apartment Complex 47, on Wilk Rd, where there are three animals with a physical disability, Apartment Complex 55, on Sobaka Rd, where no evacuations have taken place yet...” He went on to explain many other critical situations. “Here’s a map of our zone, we need to evacuate all of the rectangular buildings. Do not get into the tight roads section, our mates are dealing with it. All roads are named after animals in Eastern languages, here’s how they’re split...” He showed a map which explained the naming scheme: all roads had the name of an animal and, when they would meet another road, the language would change. The order always was, from west to east and from north to south: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Moldovan, Romanian and Bulgarian. At the moment, they were at the crossing between Jestřáb Rd and Ježek Rd, exactly in the middle. After showing that, the coordinator continued: “Now, I’ll hand to each of you a series of buildings that present critical situations: you’ll take care of each one of them with a partner.” He then looked at Axelain: “Fairbanks, you are a special case as you’ll work with your younger brother. Be sure that nothing happens to him and ensure that he helps you. I know he can.”

Axelain nodded.

“OK, everyone! Let’s bring those people to safety! The bunkers are on your map, be sure to not get lost! Good luck! FOR THE PLANET!” “FOR THE PLANET!” chanted all soldiers: even Alexan screamed a little bit.

Just like that, the meeting was over and the soldiers started scrambling around the roads. The Fairbanks brothers waited a little bit before they got going.

“Let’s see here… Lokys Rd!? Where the f*ck is that!? There’s an old person stuck on a wheelchair there.” Axelain screamed in anger as he looked at his map: the roads were written just in English.

“That’s Lithuanian.” Alexan said quickly. “That’s “Bear”.”

“How… how do you know, ‘Xan!?” asked Axelain, surprised.

“Simple… I looked it up on my laptop. If you need any translations, I can give one to you immediately.” Alexan explained.

“’Xan, you’re fantastic!” exclaimed Axelain. “With you, we’ll be able to save many people! OK, bro, let’s get going! See, you’re helping already!”

Alexan smiled a little bit before they went to the first building.

“5th floor… apartment 53…” said Axelain when they reached the building. “Stay here.” He then quickly added. All of a sudden, he climbed over the fence and started using the windows as a way to climb to the 5th floor.

Alexan was shocked and didn’t agree: “Axelain! Jeez, they’ll think you’re a burglar! Get down, for…!” He held himself from cussing, before sighing. “I’ll do this the old-fashioned way, then.” Before he could do that, however, Axelain was back to the ground. “Man, that felt good! I never parkoured on such a building!” He said satisfied.

Alexan, however, scolded him: “We’re on a mission to save people, not to get followers on social media! Axelain, get it together! Those things really fried your brain.” he said, referencing social media.

Axelain bashed his head: “Yeah, ‘Xan, you’re right. Sorry about that. Let’s go get this woman.” They both reached the front door and looked for apartment 53.

“I’m gonna ring the bell.” said Axelain.

Before he could, though, Alexan stepped up. “Hold on! If you do, she’ll have a heart attack! It’s still 4:41, you know!”

“Then what are we gonna do?” asked Axelain, slightly annoyed.

“There’s a doorman here. We can ask him.” They saw the doorman and approached him.

“How can I help you?” asked the doorman to the brothers with a surprised tone: he wasn’t excepting visitors at 4:42 in the morning.

When he heard the voice, Alexan stepped back, frightened. Axelain, however, kept his cool. “This is the CRU, we’re evacuating civilians: we need to get to apartment 53, there’s a person who can’t get out on her own. We need to get to her and bring her down to a bunker.”

“May I see an ID?”

Axelain showed his military ID.

“And the other guy?” asked the doorman as he indicated Alexan.

“He’s my brother. He’s very shy.” Axelain casually said.

“OK. I understand.” He really seemed to show sympathy for Alexan. “Apartment 53 is on the 5th floor, to your right. Use this to open the door.” The doorman said as he handed a special key.

“Thanks. Bye.”

Axelain headed for the stairs, but Alexan didn’t follow him. “C’mon, ‘Xan! You’ve been helping me so far and I know you’ll help me more!”

“…Really…?” Alexan asked, shy.

“Yeah! You’re a star! I bet you’ll get over your fears like this!” Axelain said, excited.

That convinced Alexan who followed his brother.

They reached the apartment and slowly opened the door. The apartment was pretty small and quite dirty: a place where no disabled person would want to live. After a small and tight corridor, there was a living room with just a sofa and an old TV. On their right was a kitchen, if you could call it as such, and the bathroom, which had just enough space for a toilet, while on the left was the bedroom, which had space for just a bed. In there, the brothers found an old woman bear, who was sitting on a wheelchair. She was surprised by the sudden appearance of the Fairbanks brothers and grabbed her stick: “Отойди от меня!” (“Get away from me!”) she screamed in panic as she started moving the stick around with the intention of hitting the two wolves. Alexan was startled and hid in the living room, but Axelain wasn’t and told the old woman: “We’re here to help you. Don’t panic, we’re here to help you.” he said calmly. But she wasn’t having any of that and started hitting Axelain with her stick. Despite being on a wheelchair, she had quite some strength. She screamed the same thing in the foreign language again, but her voice showed more panic than anger.

“’Xan!” Axelain screamed between the hits. “...Need some help here!”

Alexan, hearing his brother’s calls, slowly went up to the old woman and said, calmly: “ Мы здесь не для того, чтобы причинять вам боль, мы просто хотим, чтобы вы были в безопасности.”  (“We are not here to hurt you, we just want to bring you to safety.”) Axelain was surprised to hear his brother speaking Russian: despite stumbling a little bit, Alexan made himself understood. The woman immediately calmed down and apologized in Russian. Following that, Axelain explained everything to the old woman, which Alexan translated  through his laptop , and, in the end, they convinced her to leave the apartment and get to a bunker. So, Axelain brought her to the bunker, while Alexan followed and brought some personal belongings of the old woman,  as she requested . When they reached the bunker, the woman thanked them and told Alexan that he could keep the matrioska he was carrying: “ Это всегда приносило мне удачу: мне это больше не нужно, но у тебя впереди будущее, и я надеюсь, что оно поможет.”  (“It has always brought me luck: I don’t need it any more, but you have a future ahead and I hope it can help.”)

A lexan just whispered “Thank you.” in Russian, still extremely shy.

“Would you look at that! First rescue and you already got a prize! Lucky you!” said Axelain as they left the bunker.

“Yeah… I guess…” answered Alexan with some embarrassment, as he didn’t know how to answer.

“’Xan, you’re pretty good. You know, you’ve been extremely helpful out there. I admit I’m a bit too energetic and did many wrong things there, but I think I’ve learnt and I wanna test myself: I’m going alone on the next mission.” He was sure of himself.

Alexan, on the other hand, was doubtful: “What about me!? Are you sure you won’t mess up?”

Axelain gave him a page of the paper with the list of buildings to search. “I’m sure… and you’re gonna help all of these people.”

Alexan was shocked and muttered: “M…M…Me!? Alone…!?”

“Yeah, ‘Xan: you’ve done great and I know you can do it alone! Face your fears… you promised me you’d do that one day. This is the day.” Axelain answered back with a kind tone.

Alexan hesitated a bit and thought for a minute, but felt like he had to take the chance: “...You’re right… Fine… I’ll do it.”

“Wonderful! That’s my bro!” Axelain said, excited. “Meet me where the truck left us once you’re done. It’s the centre of the neighbourhood. Also, use this radio and connect to frequency 100.1 if you want to talk with me. All right, ‘Xan!?” He added while handing him some sort of walkie-talkie.

“All right.” He sighed hard before answering: he was getting ready.

“Great! See you there, then! Good luck!”

“Good luck!” Answered Alexan.

“What could go wrong?” Alexan asked himself once Axelain left. That woman wasn’t evil… she was just surprised… and he understood that feeling. She was one of the kindest he’d ever met… People weren’t that bad, after all… Why were they so ignored and hated by society!? Alexan felt a bit of familiarity in that situation.

Following that, he did fantastically, helping 9 people  of all ethnicities and races in an hour  in the whole neighbourhood and bringing all of them to safety. His  usage of Russian  with the laptop really helped, but so did that meeting with that woman. He wasn’t as afraid of people  in the neighbourhood now and started to see the good in each person,  especially in these poor people who  we re very unlucky, just like him .  It almost felt like there was some sort of connection between him and whoever he rescued: they were both ignored, if not hated by the people and the government  and they were the only ones who would understand each other properly . They weren’t afraid of him and he wasn’t afraid of them. Just like that, he was really happy and felt he was making a real difference to the planet.  He wasn’t fighting the enemy, but he was helping  people and that, for him, was the best thing to do.  Seeing the thankful faces of the rescued gave him more and more strength  and he started to feel invincible and thankful with Axelain.

After coming out of the bunker for the 10th time, he looked at the horizon between the buildings. The sun was now properly starting to rise and, with it, was the career of a future hero. But with every sunrise, eventually, comes a sunset…


	3. ...and the inevitable sunset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Alexan enjoys great success, Axelain isn't that lucky and isn't doing as well. At one point, he has to save a person in an apartment. Sounds like a normal task, but what hides beneath it is a gruesome trap. And, once Alexan sees the traumatic results of the trap on his brother and on other soldiers, he has to be brought away from what is effectively a war front. The brilliant career in the military for Alexan is short-lived and he has to be sent to therapy. How could this happen?

While Alexan was enjoying great success in rescuing people, Axelain wasn’t as efficient as his younger brother, because his more impulsive behaviour wasn’t as appreciated by the people as Alexan’s rationality and mutual understanding between excluded people. Partly because of this, he had only brought 2 people to their respective bunkers in the time it took Alexan to bring 5 times as much. In addition, it would often take him quite a bit to find the proper roads (as he would guess the language and the animal and getting it wrong) and to get there since, unlike Alexan, he hadn’t planned out an optimal path, so, if he was really unlucky, he would have to walk the whole neighbourhood in order to reach the desired building.

“Couldn’t they map them out in the respective languages, for f*ck’s sake!? Do they think we speak 15 different languages!?” he thought to himself angrily, as he looked at the 3rd building on the list. “Apartment complex 112: Šakal Rd, apartment 79. Owner has not left the apartment, suspected injury.”

“That sounds like “Jackal”, so I’m gonna do the whole Jackal Rd.” he said as he got going. This time, he was correct and found the apartment complex easily. Before entering, though, he got a radio call from Alexan:

“Axelain, can you read me?” asked the younger brother.

“Loud and clear, ‘Xan! Loud and clear!” answered the older brother.

“Do you need help? I’ve just brought the 10th civilian to safety. I’m taking a 5-minute break, I can help you now.” asked Alexan, relaxed.

“No, thanks, ‘Xan. I’m good, I’m good.” Axelain quickly said, lying.

Alexan believed his lie: “That’s fine. See you at the camp, then!”

“See you there, ‘Xan!” Axelain exclaimed, but before he could turn off the radio, Alexan told him something else.

“Wait… Before I forget…” He wasn’t as relaxed any more. “There’s a rumour around here that claims someone has set up false information regarding a few buildings. A fellow soldier told me he hasn’t been able to reach his teammate ever since he entered an apartment. Do you think it’s true…?”

Axelain quickly interrupted the worried brother. “’Xan, only one soldier told you that: many other things could’ve happened, like he fell down the stairs and fell unconscious. It happens, sometimes. Don’t worry, ‘Xan, there are always rumours made up by the enemy because they try to make us panic and fail the mission. It’s normal, don’t believe everything they tell you.” His tone was reassuring and genuine.

“OK, sorry… Thanks… Bye!” He said, muttering.

“Bye, ‘Xan!” As soon as he turned off the radio, he said to himself: “10 f*cking civilians in an hour!? I’ve never saved 5 in such a period of time, let alone 10! Poor guy, though, he still doesn’t know our enemy’s deceptive tactics. He’ll learn, he’ll learn…” After saying that, he entered the building and, despite what Alexan had told him earlier, rang the bell of apartment 79.

No answer.

He tried again.

No answer.

So, he decided to talk with the doorman. “This is the CRU, we’re evacuating civilians: we need to get to apartment 79, there’s a person who hasn’t evacuated the building yet and hasn’t been warned by our systems. We need to get to him and warn him.”

The doorman, though, looked confused. “Apartment 79… Ivan Bobrič… I haven’t heard anything of him since yesterday. He never left the building, as far as I know, so…”

“Can I please go check personally?” Axelain asked kindly. “If I find him, I’ll bring him to the bunker. Is that OK?”

“Sure, go ahead. Here’s the key.” The doorman quickly answered. He wasn’t in the mood of talking any more and didn’t want to check whether Ivan was OK. He handed the key and Axelain reached the 7th floor. He quickly found apartment 79 and entered it.

Apartment 79 had the exact same structure of all of the apartments that both he and Alexan had seen so far. Small tight hall, tiny square living room with a sofa and an old TV, a greasy kitchen, a toilet where there was barely enough space to stay and a bedroom with just the owner’s bed.

“I’ll never understand how these guys can live in such s*itholes.” Axelain told himself: just standing there for a minute made him claustrophobic, thinking about living a whole life there… “I’d rather slowly die tangled up in razor wire than live in this god-damn s*ithole!” he angrily said, forgetting that, maybe, the apartment’s owner could easily hear him and beat him up for his comments.

Indeed, someone did hear him, but that wasn’t the owner… “If you so wish, young wolf…” said the stranger, in a deep voice. He was in the living room and Axelain failed to hear or see him.

“Ivan! Ivan! CRU, I’m here to bring you to the closest bunker! I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to help you!” screamed Axelain inside the bedroom, as he quickly looked around the small and dark bedroom. But he was nowhere to be seen. So, he was about to get straight back in the small hall to look in the living room. At the last second, however, something made him jump backwards so hard he landed on the bed, which was a good metre from the entrance.

“What the… f*ck…?” Axelain asked himself, in awe. “Where did it… What?” He couldn’t understand how that could’ve happened, it made no sense!

The hall was filled with razor wire, very thick razor wire from the roof to the floor. Axelain could barely see the door from where he was sitting, on the bed. He was absolutely certain that razor wire was fake, otherwise… how could it appear out of nowhere!?

“This has gotta be… false!” He said as he convincingly went close to the razor wire. He then slowly moved his left thumb towards the wire. As he waited… waited… waited… not expecting a… poke!

As soon as his finger made contact with the wire, he quickly retracted it: it was real razor wire, one of very high quality, it was now impossible to deny its existence. Axelain looked with his mouth wide open, firstly at the wire, then at his finger, which was bleeding a little bit. For a good 5 minutes, he just stood there, on a stranger’s bed, looking at both the wire and the finger. How? How?

Still shocked, he decided to look whether he could get past it by ducking under it like he used to do during training. He looked down and quickly realized… there was no way he could make it through without dying or getting tetanus.

At this point, he fully realized his situation: he was stuck, in a stranger’s small bedroom, with no way out whatsoever. “This… can’t be… It’s gotta be just a nightmare!” he said to himself with the last bit of hope he had. He laid himself on the bed and calmly told himself, whispering: “Wake up… Wake up…”

“You could only wish this was a nightmare at this point, young wolf…”

Suddenly, Axelain heard a deep voice around the room. It was a flat voice, which didn’t show any emotional connotations. A cold and heartless voice, colder than ice. That made him jump: he grabbed the covers of the bed and hid underneath them, like a kid. “Am I… Am I losing my mind!?” Axelain asked himself under the covers. He’d never heard that voice before… who was it? “Axelain… this is just a nightmare…” He was now starting to shake in fear: he wanted to be convinced that it was a nightmare but, as time went by, he was less and less convinced. After 2 minutes, he slowly peaked out of the blankets.

Once his eyes were out, he saw something even more frightening: on an angle of the room, there was something, a being, it looked like an animal, but it also looked partially artificial. It was something that emitted a red aura, like a small fire, and was covered in darkness. Axelain could barely make out a black figure, a black body in the middle of the reddish area with a small red underline around it and where two things stood out clearly: an eye and some sort of diamond right below the eye, where was presumably the figure’s upper chest. They were both glowing red, with a bit of a purplish nuance… and in the middle of the red sclera was a yellow eye with a black pupil. He was probably wearing some sort of mask, too, and floating an inch or so over the ground, but Axelain wasn’t sure. What was sure, however, was that he was shaking violently, he was sweating and his heart was pounding in fear: it looked like the Devil had found him in a small, dirty bedroom. And there was no way out.

Axelain tried to say something, but his voice wouldn’t come out, as if he had a knot in his throat. It was the being who pronounced the first words. Just like before, with the same cold and heartless tone, he said: “This is worse than a nightmare… This is the raw reality you live in…”

“Who…?” Axelain’s question was cut by the being: “I know what you feel: fear, distress and anxiety. What everyone feels before their untimely demise, which…”

“Untimely demise!?” Axelain gasped. “Do you want to kill me!?” His terror was starting to become anger and desperation.

The being didn’t budge from the sudden rise of Axelain’s tone. “It will not be me the one who will kill you, young wolf… Your actions will lead to your painful, bloody and gruesome death… Unless…” He stopped his sentence: he wanted to hear Axelain’s desperate voice.

“Unless what!?” he asked, extremely distressed and frightened.

“Unless you make this small, greasy bedroom your new home… After all, if you occupy it for 20 years, it will become your property through adverse possession… But…” Once again, he purposely interrupted his sentence.

“But what!? Please… Please tell me…” Due to his distress, Axelain started to beg for mercy, his terror about to get the better of him. A tear dropped from his eyes.

“Had you not said you would rather die in razor wire than live in such a… bad apartment? Or have you changed your mind?” His voice kept being cold and heartless, despite proving great pleasure inside his brain.

“How did you…?” Axelain was in pure shock… And his shock quickly turned into uncontrollable rage: “YOU SON OF A B*TCH, I’LL KILL YOU!” he screamed, as if he had been possessed. He quickly got up from the bed and, without his weapons, he decided to dive towards the being, like a wild wolf lunging at his prey. At the last second, though, the being suddenly disappeared from his eyesight and Axelain landed on the ground, also hitting the wall with his head. The hit wasn’t that bad, but that stopped all of his rage, which went back to being absolute shock.

The figure was now on the other side of the bedroom from where Axelain was standing, without the bed in the middle, still keeping the same posture, still seemingly floating. It felt as if he had blitzed from one side of the room to the other. With the sun slowly rising outside, the room had a bit more light and the figure was starting to get clearer: it was a black figure, wearing metallic boots and a metallic mask, with something covering his right eye. In addition, it had very long white dreadlocks and a black tail with a white tip. It was still, though, emitting a red aura, which was making him a bit darker than the rest of the room. Axelain noted, however, that the figure kept touching his mask with his right hand, every 10 seconds or so, in order to not make it fall.

At this point, Axelain asked the question he had been trying to ask since he first saw the figure: “Who… are you?”

Finally, he received an answer: “You may call me Infinite, in the brief moments that remain of you.” By the way Infinite said the sentence, it almost looked like something he would say to everyone who met his path. “You do not want to give in your fear, while you should… you are only weakening yourself as I get stronger… Your panic, fear, desperation, distress… Only make me stronger… And insignificant kids like you only exist to strengthen the strong…” He continued, continuously setting his mask back in place, as if it was a bit larger than his head.

“I don’t f*cking give a s*it about your stupid monologues! Come here, you s*it!” Axelain screamed, desperate. Once again, he dove towards Infinite and, just like before, Infinite moved at the last second. “You’re… you’re not real!” Axelain said to Infinite, who was now floating just over the bed, his voice cut by the shock and distress. He started beating his head violently with his hand, like his brother would during a meltdown. “YOU’RE NOT REAL! YOU’RE NOT REAL!” he screamed between his violent hits.

“I am worse than a nightmare, young wolf… I am a living nightmare for you… And soon, for everyone… At least, it shall end soon for you…”

His sadistic comments that hinted an imminent death were very clear to Axelain, who, once again, dove towards Infinite, screaming and growling like a wild animal, a wolf hunting its prey or fighting against another predator for food but, once again, Infinite moved out of the trajectory and Axelain landed on the bed. After that, he didn’t talk to Infinite, he just tried again and dove towards the being once again who, just like before, moved in a split second from his location, in front of the door that led to the hall, to another one. The door was open and, this time, no wall was going to stop Axelain’s launch: it was going to be the razor wire from before.

“F*CK!” Axelain screamed as he dove head-first into the razor wire, which started poking his whole face violently, like his head, his big eyes and inside his mouth. Generally, he would stay still, like he had been taught, in order to avoid getting more cuts, but the pain was unbearable and he started thrashing violently: soon enough, his legs and arms got caught up in the wire, leaving Axelain entangled in the brutal grip of the wire.

“HELP! SOMEONE! HELP ME! PLEAAAAAAAAAAASE! ‘XAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! 911!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANYONEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” He started screaming at the top of his lungs as he felt the wire cutting deep into his flesh, eyes and mouth, which was starting to lead to extensive bleeding. His pain was incredibly immense and unbearable, tears started dropping from what was left of his eyes: his life couldn’t end like that! He had only lived 19 years out of an expected 83 years: that wasn’t even 25% of his life expectancy! And to think he had such high hopes for his future, as he wanted to become an actor: after finishing college, he was going to enrol in an acting school, since he felt he had the acrobatic capabilities and knew very well how to act… But now, his choice of training in the military in order to “pass the time” and feel some adrenaline was about to cut a prominent and promising life short. Adrenaline that would not ease the pain of the wire.

After screaming that words with a painful and desperate tone, he started crying, as the once heroic and brave Axelain was now whining like a baby, asking for an ambulance or, at least, help. He then tried to reach his walkie-talkie, which was on a small utility belt that he was wearing. But his hands were effectively stuck in the wire and wouldn’t move without causing extreme pain and deep cuts. Axelain was feeling his blood slowly starting to flow on his body or squirting on the floor or the walls. But it all missed Infinite, who was nearby, admiring his successful trap and looking at the desperate, dying wolf. Still showing no emotion on the outside…

“Scream and thrash, kid, and the pain will become larger and larger… but at least it will end more quickly. You probably know best that you would want to wait as much as possible…” he said, without showing any remorse. Actually, his voice hinted a very tiny bit of pleasure.

Axelain immediately stopped screaming and thrashing and tried to locate Infinite, but he couldn’t see with his eyes slit by the wire. So, he decided to listen by staying still.

“… but that means I shall taste more and more of your desperation, terror and feeling of impending doom.” After that, he laughed like a villain, implying that he was the one behind the wire, the trap and Ivan’s disappearance.

“...How… How…?” asked Axelain, whose voice was now weaker. He then spat a bit of blood.

“Well, is there a reason for sharing something with a dying wolf?” Infinite answered with a brutal question, which made Axelain realize even more of his incoming doom. “It is something your so called friends will soon discover.” Infinite added, still showing heartlessness and no remorse. “Speaking of friends…” Infinite slowly approached Axelain and walked through the razor wire as if it wasn’t there, without getting cut by it. Axelain couldn’t see him, but he could feel his presence, which emitted fear and distress just by being near someone. At this point, Infinite took the walkie-talkie from Axelain’s utility belt and pressed the button which read: “Transmit to last contact”.

“Attempt explaining it to your fellow soldiers, kid, and maybe they will save you. Or they will die trying. Probably the latter.” Infinite said as he dropped the walkie-talkie near Axelain’s bleeding mouth and casually walked out of the wire. “I am giving you a chance, a chance to become at least an invalid… an invalid who will feel physical and psychological pain for the next 60 years, unless your nerves are compromised, that is… At least you will receive an amount of money… to spend on the newest wheelchair…” That last part showed his dark humour and sarcasm and Axelain wasn’t amused in the slightest. “…or is it death that is seeked?” At this point, the walkie-talkie near Axelain successfully booted up and started recording what was being said.

“I want… unngh… I wanna live…” Axelain said with a resigned tone.

“Stubborn…” was the only word Infinite said with a severe tone.

Axelain then heard a voice, which was a bit deformed probably due to the poor signal inside the apartment, but it was certainly his brother’s.

Alexan had just brought in the 13th civilian to a bunker when he decided to take a little break from rescuing civilians. He found a surprisingly good-looking park and sat on a bench. The morning sun was starting to rise, with a few clouds on the other side of the sky. The sun fit perfectly between the buildings, slowly moving up the road Alexan was looking at. There was also a cool morning breeze, which made the leaves on the trees move a little bit. Alexan loved that and closed his eyes, feeling the breeze caressing his body. He imagined himself with his big brother, with whom he had a very close relationship, despite their contrasting personalities, as they met again after splitting paths about 20 years into the future. They would both be holding a trophy: Axelain would be holding an Oxcar, while Alexan held a Goosebel Prize. After that, they would hug each other so hard, tears flowing from both wolves, as their parents, who would be much older, would clap and say: “These are my boys!”

This beautiful dream was suddenly interrupted by his walkie-talkie, which started to vibrate, indicating an upcoming registration from Axelain.

“I want… unngh… I wanna live…” said a voice from the other end of the walkie-talkie: despite the interference caused by what was probably the poor signal of the building, Alexan immediately recognised it as his older brother’s. He was shocked, because Axelain clearly wasn’t talking to him and was much weaker than usual, indicating some sort of torture. Fearing the worst, Alexan immediately started holding the “Respond” button (the two brothers’ walkie-talkies were different: Axelain’s was newer and didn’t require to hold a button to respond, while Alexan’s, which was an older and simplified model for rookies, needed a button to be held down in order to say something.) and was ready to say something, but something held him back from doing so: it was a severe voice that just said “Stubborn…”. When he heard that, he let go of the “Respond” button and shivered, as he felt that voice was familiar. However, he quickly forgot about it as he became really concerned about Axelain’s well-being. So, he exhaled hard, held the “Respond” button and asked, convincingly: “Axelain, big brother, are you OK!?”

A few seconds later, Axelain lied: “...Yes… unngh...” His voice was painful to hear, as it clearly was holding all the pain in and, in addition, sadness, a lot of it. “...I’m OK, do…”

Axelain’s weak and meek voice was interrupted by the much more imposing, strong and colder voice of the other person: “Is this how you want to use your only chance to survive!? What a pity!”

Alexan held back as Axelain answered with decision on the other end of the walkie-talkie: “I don’t… want my younger brother… involved in this… *cough cough*!”

As soon as Alexan heard that, he turned his laptop on and started an app that would track the location of the signal. While the app was doing its job, the conversation between Axelain and the other animal, which, to Alexan, almost felt like an executioner, went on.

“Why look after the others when you cannot even ensure your own survival?” the other animal said, coldly. “You really deserve to die… You were not made for this world.”

For a while, Axelain didn’t say anything… After all, Infinite was right: he had always looked after Alexan for most of his life, knowing how weak his brother was, and he felt like that was natural… Natural! Axelain convincingly answered back: “I was made… to raise… my younger brother… unngh…!”

When Alexan heard that, he felt a tear dropping from his eye. But the other voice stopped the emotional moment with a sentence colder than himself: “You did not raise him, you just made him WEAKER, dependant on you. A part of him will die once you do, and I will personally be sure that the remnants will be cleared!” Following that, he laughed like a villain.

That sentence triggered something in Alexan, who grabbed the walkie-talkie and screamed: “I’LL GET YOU, YOU SICK F*CK!”

As soon as he did that, though, he regretted it and quickly started breathing heavily, scared of the consequences. That words seemingly came out of his heart and not from his head and he was now starting to realize what he had done.

After a few seemingly endless seconds, the voice from the other side answered back: “Just as I predicted, younger wolf… You depend on your brother and you feel a part of you dying…” As Infinite slowly said that words, Alexan started to tremble and felt as if he was about to collapse or, even worse, lose consciousness. Infinite continued: “What are you going to do now, track my position down?”

As soon as he said that, his laptop suddenly had a Blue Screen of Death. “NO, NOT NOW!” Alexan screamed, as he forgot he was holding down the “Respond” button. “…How did you…?” he asked, growling.

Infinite interrupted Alexan: “If you would like to be a witness of my powers, come see your brother. I guarantee you will be entertained for the rest of your life… Fun is Infinite…”

Alexan was shaking in fear and said, muttering: “I’ll… Your time… will come, too…!”

Infinite wasn’t shocked at all and added, keeping a cold and sadistic tone: “Is this your idea of fear!? Hmmph… Then you never tried how REAL fear feels like… and I would be more than happy to show you… Apartment complex 112: Šakal Rd, apartment 79. You are formally invited to admire my powers, a show only a selected few get to see… and even fewer get to tell the performance to their friends!” He then, once again, laughed like a villain, before the signal was lost.

Alexan stood still for a minute, trying to think about what to do.

But his head started to hurt: when that would happen, it meant his head was in turmoil. “Unngh...” Alexan groaned as he bent on the grass, with his right knee on the ground. He tried to think, but his head hurt, affected by the mixture of anger and fear that that voice gave him… Which was familiar… But where had he heard that before?

At one point, he suddenly started running blindly, not knowing where he was going. He also started crying, dropping tears on the old asphalt. Despite being 7:30 a.m., there was no car in sight and clouds were starting to cover the sun. The once pleasant breeze became a cold, chilly wind, which made him shiver. “HELP! HEEEEEELP ME!” Alexan screamed at the top of his lungs. As he looked at the sky, as if to hope for a miracle from the sky, he failed to notice a bump on the road and tripped on it, falling head-first into the asphalt. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt, so he looked behind to see what he had tripped on…

That was frightening… No, it couldn’t have been! That wasn’t a bump… Had he just tripped on a DEAD BODY in the middle of the road!?

Alexan couldn’t believe it and he didn’t want to. It felt like a terrible nightmare, but it was real. He slowly walked on all fours towards the body and he touched the body’s wrist: it was already cold and there was no pulse, he was dead… Or was it a he? Why… why was its chest so… large…? Alexan looked in horror at the dead body, lying in the middle of the road, refusing to believe what he was thinking. “War… can’t be… that… bad… can it…?” He muttered as he started running again, trying to delete that view, once again aimlessly.

He wanted to get out, to get away from where he was, from the planet, as panic was starting to get the better of him. He didn’t inform the leader about his finding, he just kept running. At one point, a young soldier saw the wolf cub rushing past him and screamed: “Hey, you!” Alexan immediately stopped, but he didn’t turn to see whoever had called him. “What’s gotten into you!?” He sounded like an important person.

“…Nothing…” Alexan whispered, looking at the ground.

“Nothing!? It looked like you had seen a ghost!” the soldier said, keeping his cool.

“I’ve seen something worse…” Alexan wanted to say, but he didn’t want to explain what he had seen: no one would have believed him. He had often read of war at school and he had always kept some indifference with it, just learning the dates and the main facts of each war like it was a daily occurrence in the Middle Ages… but now, he was a direct testimony of war: brutalities that would always be kept out of the history books were materializing in front of his eyes. If people were informed about those brutalities, nobody with the tiniest bit of humanity would wage war ever again… But then again, his enemies didn’t have any… Especially his brother’s executioner… His brother! How could Alexan forget about his brother’s situation! Panic had gotten the better of him and, now, he had to get back in his tracks and save his brother from a certain death. “I have to go to a building…” Alexan said, on a rush.

“OK. And oh… Before you go…” The soldier wanted to add something. “If you see a young lady in the CRU, that’s Priscilla, my wife. We’ll soon have a baby, but I haven’t seen her yet. You see, I’m from the front lines…” He noted while showing his Wisp gun. “And I’ve sent Priscilla here ‘cause it’s the safest position in the military. If you see her, tell her I’m here and that I’m looking forward to the baby. I bet he’ll be just as strong and brave as I am!” He sounded optimistic.

Alexan, without even looking at the soldier, quickly said: “OK, I will. Bye!” And he immediately restarted running. “He doesn’t know…” he thought afterwards. He then began experiencing panic and desperation again, as he felt he wasn’t safe at all where he was. His head started to hurt even more, which meant he was even more nervous. He felt like he was about, once again, to lose his mind. What did he get into!? Was there a safe way out!? And, even worse, was everyone aware of the situation!? The last answer was clearly a “No.” Some soldiers were probably joking around to lighten the mood, without knowing that there were people dying! But then, he remembered about his brother and started running towards Šakal Rd, the Slovenian section of Jackal Rd. He looked at the map, set up a path and started running. “I’ll save you, Axelain. I promise!” He said to himself as he was running through the seemingly identical roads, only differentiated by the colours of the buildings, which were just as eye-stabbing as a sudden flash of a neon light. Speaking of that, it was incredibly silent through all the roads, almost desert-like. There was no one there, not even a fly. The only things Alexan could hear were his panting and the cold breeze which was constantly getting stronger and stronger, becoming colder and colder, with stronger gusts. Normally, Alexan would enjoy being alone in a street, but that sight was daunting. Only a few leaflets were flying, accompanied by the wind. Many buildings looked like they had most of their apartments closed and abandoned. It felt like he was the only one left to face an unknown enemy, which could strike whenever it wanted, especially when Alexan would feel the weakest. The gusts of wind were incredibly chilly and Alexan started trembling even more: he almost felt like he was about to collapse, he couldn’t feel his legs. But would the hospital be safe? At this point, even the most secure place on the planet wasn’t safe at all.

Suddenly, something reminded him that he was still in a world populated by 7.5 billion anthropomorphic animals. It was his walkie-talkie, which started vibrating. Alexan grabbed it and waited for the message.

But what he received was a loud and frightening series of sounds, which meant there was a big interference in the signal. After a while, it stopped, before restarting and giving out the same garbled mess of sounds. Clearly, someone was trying to reach him, but he or she was failing. At this point, Alexan held down the “Respond” button and said. “I can’t hear you! Over!” After that, the same sounds hit him from the walkie-talkie’s speakers. Just like that, he started running even more, trying to cover the last 2 blocks between him and that death room, in order to save Axelain.

Axelain heard the same sounds, still entangled in the razor wire and slowly waiting for his demise. For 20 minutes now, he had given up trying to get free and stood still, crying, waiting for his death, like a man who’s about to be hanged and already has the noose around his neck, ready to end his life. While he was crying, Infinite was still near him, as Axelain could sense the imposing and vicious presence still near him. At this point, it was only the torturer who was talking, constantly mocking him and his brother and remarking sadistically about Axelain’s helplessness and situation, as if he wanted to make Axelain die psychologically before physically passing away. He was showing no remorse whatsoever, actually, maybe he was starting to show more and more pleasure in his words. And Axelain didn’t have the strength to answer back and would just drop a few more tears from his eyes, as if to admit that Infinite, after all, was right. He felt like an open book, a book that Infinite really enjoyed reading and loved to tell its contents. He could feel Infinite walking around him, not even bothering to float, probably examining his dying body like a poacher who would look at the animal who fell into his trap, or a scientist examining his work. He felt violated, mocked, but he accepted the situation and would just think about his younger brother, to whom he still wanted to teach so much about the world. But now, that was impossible because, besides him, Lorenz had already probably been killed by Eggman’s robots, while Marta was safe in a bunker somewhere. At least, she was safe, but not Alexan, to whom he had always shown a lot of respect and an open-minded mentality, a young cub that he loved as a brother for who he was: a unique person… and he now was in extreme danger of dying, too, while Axelain himself was effectively dead, he had died 30 minutes earlier, when he launched himself into the wire: after that, trying to get free from its grasp, but failing to do so, had been caused by the uncontrollable survival instinct, something that isn’t life, but the fight for it: no freedom of choice, no enjoyment, just tension and fear of death. From there, he kept feeling his body getting emptier and emptier, his blood slowly flowing out of his body and, with it, his life, ready for a collapse from which he would never wake up. His only wish now was that Alexan would avenge his death and end Infinite like that monster, worse than the Devil, had done to him.

At that point, his thoughts were interrupted by a slap, a hard one. It was Infinite, who was checking whether Axelain was still alive or not. For the last 5 minutes, Axelain hadn’t even moved a muscle due to how weak he was. His untimely death was getting closer and closer. “Unngh…” Axelain groaned, with a voice that indicated he had no strength left in his body. All of his strength had been drained with the blood and, at that specific moment, he felt he could only last for 5, maybe 10 more minutes.

Infinite confirmed his thoughts: “I sense you still have 5, maybe 10 minutes worth of life left. Be sure to enjoy them because you will never get another chance to do so. Soon, you will just be a NUMBER, a figure, joined by millions of people. And if your name appears on a shrine, like in Kingofapulia, no one would BOTHER to read your name within thousands. People have better things to do…” The way he put emphasis on the words “number” and “bother” and the second sentence made Axelain even sadder, as he felt like he wasn’t going to be remembered, even if his name was going to be written on a shrine. “I have to say, though, you have entertained me for quite a while, I’m impressed… But my work here is done…”

As Infinite was saying that, Axelain managed to clench his wrist, as if to show that justice will be done to Infinite, when the time would come. But Infinite totally ignored it and continued: “Before I let you enjoy the last seconds, which are still ticking to this moment…” He continued, imitating the sound of a clock for 15 or so seconds.

Axelain felt his last bits of strength starting to fade away.

“… There is still one last thing I really want to tell you: in the Italian language, there is a different way to say _Go break a leg!_ and that is: _In bocca al lupo!_, which is translated to _In the wolf’s mouth!_. Do you happen to know what the answer is to this superstition…?”

“…no…*pant*” Axelain managed to answer back.

“_Crepi il lupo!_, which means…” The next words were pronounced in a very sadistic way: “_May the wolf die!_ So, as a way to say good-bye for good, I can only wish to you getting out of there… _In bocca al lupo!_”

Following that sadistic sentence, he once again laughed like a villain and left by disappearing all of a sudden. As soon as he did that, all of the razor wire that had slowly drained Axelain’s life for the past 30 minutes disappeared, as if Infinite had made it and, with him gone, it disappeared in thin air.

Axelain dropped on the floor on a pool of blood, which was still liquid: it felt like hours, if not days, staying entangled in the razor wire. He would’ve been surprised if he had learnt that he had stayed there for just 30 minutes. An amount of time that he wouldn’t have the chance to live ever again. How many times did he live 30 minutes during his life and felt they were excruciatingly slow? Too few… He had to live painfully slow 30 minutes at least 4 times as much! Just like the amount of years: 19 years out of 83… He didn’t even get the chance to live 75% of his life! Just thinking about how many days he had ahead of his life made him sob and cry, as he felt he could’ve done something to avoid his incoming death. If only he could tell Alexan what happened and warn him of Infinite’s incredible and frightening powers… That was his last wish.

A wish that would be granted.

15 seconds after thinking that, he heard the door open, which had been kept it unlocked in order to let the civilian out safely and more efficiently. With his eyes out of order, he could only hear what was happening, laying on a pool of blood, wondering: was it the paramedics coming to heal him? No… even better: it was Alexan!

“AXELAIN!” Alexan screamed as he looked at the murder scene, where he saw his brother lying on a pool of blood, seemingly lifeless. He immediately went to grab his older brother’s body and put a finger on its wrist. When he felt a very faint pulse, Alexan felt thankful and started shaking his brother so as to get an answer from him. Axelain slowly tilted his head towards where he felt Alexan’s was, showing his brother a gruesome sight, filled with cuts everywhere, eyes disfigured so badly I can’t describe without making you shiver in disgust and spots of blood everywhere, which contrasted his dark grey body.

Alexan stepped back a little bit in disgust, as he started to feel nausea and vomit coming up his body: how could someone be so brutal in his brother’s murder!? Even if Alexan murdered someone, he would never do so in such a brutal, gruesome way. It was sickening, but Alexan needed to know who caused such a murder.

“What happened!?” he asked, holding in all of his disgust.

Axelain groaned before answering, saying every letter slowly, with worrying gaps between them: “In…fini…te…”

“Infinite what?” Alexan asked, confused.

“He’s… **pant…** worse than…” He coughed some blood before continuing: “the Devil…”

Alexan kept silent, shivering in fear: how could someone be worse than who put a sword on his throat when he was 12!? “Machiavelli was right…” he thought. “People are evil inside…”

His thoughts were interrupted by Axelain’s heart-breaking voice, which had almost no strength left: “He… he kills… psych… psycho…logically…” Suddenly, he couldn’t feel his legs any more. Like a big series of computers, Axelain felt his brain shutting down part by part, screen by screen. He was never going to finish the sentence before losing consciousness for the final time, so he said, letting go of the tears: “Avenge me… ‘Xan… For me… And for everyone… You can do it…!” After muttering that with a voice that showed pain, resignation and, at the same time, hope, his head dropped backwards, showing that he had lost consciousness. And, just like that, Axelain joined the afterlife and reached Heaven.

“Axelain!” Alexan stroked his brother’s body, as if to bring it back to life.

No answer.

“Axelain!” He repeated again, crying fountains.

His brother didn’t react at all to his pleads and his strokes: he really was dead.

“AXELAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!” He screamed, psychologically demolished: he had never felt so sad and heart-broken in his life. The death of a brother, a guide to the world, was the worst thing that could happen to him: he didn’t feel ready to tackle everyday problems, he felt like he still had a lot to learn from his brother, who seemingly knew everything about daily life. He was now alone, in a planet filled with people who hated him for what he was and the few who loved him were either dead or too far away.

He laid his head on his brother’s chest and continued crying, crushing his head on Axelain’s bloody chest. He didn’t want anyone to see his desperation and utter sadness. Just like his mental disability, he was embarrassed to show any emotions, thinking that people would see his moment of weakness and use it to their advantage. He really didn’t trust strangers.

After a minute of pure heart-break and non-stop sobbing, though, he had an idea: he put his left hand over his right one and started pushing on Axelain’s chest, starting a CPR procedure. “Thank goodness I learned it…” Alexan thought as he kept pushing at a regular pace. There was still a bit of hope in him. For the following 15 minutes, he kept pushing and pushing, waiting for someone to come in, worried. As the minutes went by, Alexan started to feel that the situation kept worsening and getting more and more hopeless. Axelain’s beat wasn’t coming back and he was starting to feel tired. He couldn’t go on forever, his arms were starting to feel sore from the constant pushing. At that point, he regretted not calling for help, as he couldn’t stop doing CPR in the middle of it without a beat. “Please… Axelain…” Alexan muttered as he started to get desperate. “…Come… Back…” He added, with tears starting to drop from his eyes. Hope was fading away. Another 5 minutes of CPR just led to more desperation, heart-break and sadness: at this point, Alexan felt his arms really started to hurt extremely badly, to the point of almost ripping his weak arm muscles, so he had to stop. He put a hand on his brother’s chest… it was silent, hard and starting to get colder.

There was no way to save him now…

“No… this… can’t be…” Alexan started thinking as he was on the verge of crying once again.

As he was doing that, a bird soldier entered the room in a rush, indicating that he wanted to tell something immediately.

“Everyone!” he screamed, trying to get attention, before he noticed the scene in front of him, with Alexan looking at him like a puppy who had lost his best friend and was looking for a new guide. His eyes were lucid, indicating a lot of tears. “Every… one…” This time, the bird said the word with a shocked tone, as he looked at the body of Axelain: a bloody mess, filled with deep cuts and… much worse… how could anyone commit such a gruesome murder!?

“Please…” Alexan whimpered. “Please…” Alexan closed his eyes in order to try hold in all of the tears.

The bird looked in awe at the scene, before he went to check Axelain’s body. His face showed a bit of disgust, but the bird touched the body in order to see whether there was a beat or not. He almost shivered by how cold it was.

The bird sighed really hard before saying with a genuine tone: “My deepest condolences… There’s nothing we can do…”

Alexan looked at the bird, still showing the same face from before.

“We have to go… the mission has been aborted…”

“…No…” Alexan whispered, his body dirty with his brother’s blood. “There’s got… to be something…”

The bird bended near Alexan and put his hand on the shoulder, like a father, before saying. “There isn’t… but you can get over it… I did, too… But we have to go.”

“No…” Alexan whispered again, his voice showing sadness. He hugged Axelain’s body tightly, showing he wanted to stay with his brother.

The bird, understanding the situation, decided to explain why he had to go: “Please… come with me, soldiers are dying on the roads and inside apartments: the former are shot by some sort of laser, as if there is a sniper with a deadly laser gun shooting from one of the buildings, while the latter, like your brother, are baited in deadly traps, where they die slowly… We have to go!” He was starting to get impatient, he had to warn everyone about the fact that the mission had been aborted.

“…Not without Axelain!” Alexan screamed in sadness, as he hug his brother’s body even harder.

“The paramedics will pick him up… They’re on their way. Once home…” The bird explained, but Alexan interrupted.

“NOT WITHOUT AXELAIN!” he screamed even more, as he felt he was about to have a meltdown.

“Look, kid…”

Alexan was having none of that.

“NOT! WITHOUT! HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, before putting a hand on the wall and starting bashing his head on the hand, which protected him from the wall.

The soldier quickly intervened, grabbing Alexan and bringing him away from the wall. “Oh, oh, oh, easy, easy there! What’s gotten into you!?”

Alexan started crying again. “I’m sorry…”

The bird had to give in and accept Alexan’s request. “Fine. You’re taking the body with you. We’ll give it to the General at base camp. Let’s go, he might be setting up a trap.”

Alexan picked up the body, put it on his shoulders and left the murder scene carrying his brother’s dead body.

“Follow me.” the bird soldier said, in an authoritarian tone. “Someone wants to see you.”

Alexan didn’t say anything and kept walking behind the soldier, looking at the ground with his brother’s weight on his shoulder. It was pretty heavy, as if he was carrying the whole world with him. That was exactly what he felt, while he was slowly following the soldier, who was going at a slow pace so that Alexan could easily keep up. For him, Axelain was the gateway to the real world, he was the one who was going to carry Alexan for his whole life in order to make him happy, he was the manifestation of the good in the world, which was very little. And now, the amount of good was even smaller: there was only Marta left. Evil was going to triumph, there was no doubt about that… Was there anybody else who fought for the good of the world!? Yes… that hedgehog… the “Blue Blur”, “The Fastest Thing Alive”… he went by many nicknames, but Alexan knew he would never meet him and, if he did, their personalities were the exact opposite…

His thoughts were interrupted by the soldier, who noted while looking at the other side of the road: “Look at that!” He indicated something on the pavement: a body, another young soldier lying on the ground, lifeless. “He was shot. I saw him from far away…” He sighed before telling Alexan: “We need to pick up the pace. He might be onto us.”

Their fear was soon confirmed, as they heard what looked like a faint scream just a block away from them: a scream of pain, which was then followed by a deafening silence, interrupted by the gusts of wind.

“Sh*t…”, the bird whispered to himself. Right after that, he exclaimed: “We need to get to base camp… NOW!” The bird immediately started running, with Alexan struggling to keep up, as he brought his brother on his shoulders. He felt like that Greek character, the one who had to carry the world on his shoulders. For him, Axelain wasn’t just a brother, he was the whole world.

As the two kept running towards base camp, the bird noticed another two or three dead bodies, while also hearing screams of panic and fear: more and more soldiers were becoming aware and were starting to run. The bird saw some of them, some of which even started running in the other direction, away from base camp. The bird tried to stop them, but he failed to do so as they wouldn’t stop. “This is meant to be the safest place on the military… Why?” the bird thought, sad. “Why did they hit those whose only job was to… help and not to hinder their advancements… Why?”

Alexan, however, didn’t see or think anything, as the weight on his shoulders made him look at the destroyed asphalt, filled with potholes and cracks. He did hear some screams of panic, but he didn’t think about them too much: he only wanted to think about the late Axelain.

At one point, he noticed the bird stopping a few blocks away from base camp. He tilted his head upwards a bit, where he saw something too familiar: a Maserati… was that Marta’s Maserati!? No, it couldn’t have been… But then again, that was the poorest neighbourhood… Had she come all the way there to help him, despite the dangers of leaving the bunker during war? He didn’t want to believe it… He would’ve had to explain why he was carrying the bloody body of his brother on his shoulders! He didn’t want to… So, he looked at the car plate: F1RNK5… Yep, that was his mother’s car. Following that, he slowly lifted his head up a little bit, so that he could see the car’s windscreen. There, he saw a figure on the driver’s seat, covering her mouth and nose with her hands. He was 100% certain… That was Marta. She was hiding the turmoil of emotions that she was living, like shock, remorse, sadness and thankfulness. Shock, because she saw an extremely weak and psychologically demolished Alexan, almost like the time of the terrible meltdown on Park Ave, carrying the weight of her brother on her shoulder; both bodies were incredibly dirty, while Axelain’s face… was almost unrecognisable due to the injuries caused by the wire. Remorse, because she felt she could’ve done something to protect her cubs, who were almost grown-ups, from the brutality of war, like bringing Alexan to safety with her. Sadness, because, in the span of 5 hours, she had lost her husband and her older son, while the younger son was incredibly weak, sad and tired of carrying such a weight on his shoulders… She wanted to get out of the car, grab the body and bring it herself, so that, at least, Alexan could relax a bit after living such dreadful hours. Finally, at least she was thankful, because she had been looking for Alexan for the past 30 minutes, looking around the neighbourhood after being informed by Dr. Freudir: she’d just found a therapy perfect for Alexan’s situation. Indeed, after over 3 years of research, Freudir had just come up with a perfect therapy for Alexan. Something that, however, was subject to change because it was easy to imagine Alexan’s mental health had worsened following his brother’s death.

From inside the car, she saw Alexan looking at her, struggling to keep his brother’s weight on his shoulders, eyes lucid with tears. Afterwards, she got out of the car and ran towards Alexan.

“This is why I brought you here…”, the bird told Alexan, as the wolf cub kept looking at his mother with the same look he had given to the soldier. A request for help. For his mother.

“ALEXAN!” Marta screamed with a voice that showed both thankfulness and sadness. She hugged her son tightly, despite Axelain’s body being on Alexan’s shoulders. She hugged him for a good minute, hugging him tightly, as if not to lose contact with her younger son. Because she had just lost the other one. As she was hugging him, she felt a tear flowing on her clothes: that was Alexan’s. When she felt that, she also started crying and she whispered, between the sobs: “We’ll be fine… We’ll be fine…”

Alexan interrupted her with an even more heart-breaking tone: “We won’t… without Axelain…” While he was saying that, he dropped his brother’s body on the ground, feeling finally physically free from a tiresome weight. Despite that, he felt all of his muscles hurt dreadfully, because he wasn’t used to carrying such weights for a long time. The one that hurt the most, though, was his heart. In addition, he was extremely dirty with Axelain’s blood and sweaty, while also feeling a terrible headache. Indeed, his mind was on turmoil, filled with sadness and desperation. He felt lost, he shouldn’t have been there. Why did Axelain bring him there? Was he even aware about the damage to the family that his actions would’ve lead!? No… He probably wasn’t. That wasn’t his fault… It was the enemy’s!

“They… killed him…” Alexan whispered to her mother, as he showed the body.

Marta stood silent, looking at the badly cut body of her older son. Her eyes quickly turned lucid again in order to hide the gruesome sight of her son. To think that, just a few hours earlier, he was incredibly healthy, active and ready to live many more decades. Now, he was lying still, dead, his body gruesomely cut from head to toe… at just 19. When you’re 19, you don’t even remotely think of dying, you just think of living and enjoying the future… Suddenly, she collapsed because of the shock, but the bird, who was near her, grabbed her before she hit the ground. Even he had started crying a little bit.

After a few minutes, she regained consciousness: the first thing she saw was Alexan’s face, still showing that face… My goodness, that was the worst thing she had ever seen. “I need help… Mom… Please…” She heard Alexan whisper, sobbing.

She didn’t even get up when she said: “I will, darling… I’m here for that…”

That almost made Alexan jump, since he hadn’t noticed she had regained consciousness. “Thanks…” He just whispered, shivering due to a cold gust.

“That’s great,” The bird added “but I need to go warn the others.” Before leaving, however, he added: “I called her here, Fairbanks, because she’s the only one who can help you. Stay strong.” He sounded genuine. Just like that, he left mother and son alone, in a street they had never thought of meeting on. And where they wouldn’t have to talk about Alexan’s future and Axelain’s death.

“Come here, Alexan!” Marta said, opening her arms. Alexan went there immediately and hugged her mother. She was now the only person left that could support him. Well, almost… “Dr. Freudir wants to see us in her office west of the City. She’s found a cure.”

Alexan didn’t answer for a minute, before asking: “What about…?” He didn’t finish the question, as saying “Axelain’s body” didn’t sound real. So, he indicated Axelain, who was lying on the ground, like he was just sleeping.

How could’ve Marta forgotten about that!? Maybe because she just wanted to be positive… at least, Alexan was still with her and there was a chance to help him. A chance to redeem herself and, at least, limit the damage caused by what she thought was negligence.

“…You’re right… I forgot…” she admitted, sad. She was back to the full reality, with both positive and negative things. So, she came up with a solution quickly: “We could put him in the trunk. No one will see him there.” She couldn’t believe she was saying that, putting her son’s dead body in the trunk was something unimaginable for the whole family.

“We could do that…”, Alexan added; he knew that was the only solution to bring him with them. “Let’s go…”, he added.

Heartbroken, Alexan picked up his brother’s body and put him gently inside the trunk. Once in there, Alexan moved his brother’s body, putting him in a comfortable position for sleeping.

In the meantime, Marta went and kissed Axelain on his forehead, like a mother telling “Good night” to her son.

“Sleep tight, Axelain…”, Alexan said while closing the trunk. They both looked at the body one final time, before closing the trunk and sealing Axelain’s fate. Now, their trunk was a coffin and no one would know the heart-break felt inside the car while they would be carrying a body like a hearse. A Maserati carrying a body… How did drivers of actual Maserati hearses feel when they drove a body to its resting place, followed by cars showing heart-break?

A feeling they would soon discover… with a twist. Indeed, both Alexan and Marta failed to notice another luxury car nearby, parked about 100 m away from them. Because of that, they kept talking about private stuff.

“My goodness, Alexan, you can’t present yourself to Dr. Freudir like this! You really need to get washed up!” Marta noted while looking at Alexan’s very dirty body, which also had a few blood stains. “We’ll stop at Lake Foxine in the north-western mountains where I’ll wash you. OK?”

“OK…” Alexan answered.

After saying that, they got in the car and turned on the engine.

“Why don’t you wash yourself with the tears that should be flowing from your eyes?” The driver of the other car asked Alexan, but the young wolf, obviously, didn’t hear the cold voice. As the Maserati started driving off, the other driver got in the car: a car so unique that would usually stand out, but no one would think about it in that tragic period… It was a black Infiniti Vision GT, with a few stickers on the sides, all windscreens black (so as to not show what or who was inside) and a strange license plate. As the driver turned on the car, the engine roared and, after a few seconds of setting the car up and buckling the seatbelts, the Infiniti skidded off towards where the Maserati had gone, in order to follow it, with the driver controlling the exotic car with incredible precision. They were both headed for the highway.

The highway was shockingly empty, with very few cars driving on it… which meant that the Fairbanks could spot the Infiniti following them from a small distance. Neither of the two, though, were even aware of that and just thought about the future which, for Alexan, looked safe. Finally, after years of waiting, a therapy made only for him had been found and Marta believed in it, so she was optimistic.

“I’ll wash you a bit at the lake and then we’re visiting Freudir in her office, in Foxtrot, 10 miles west from here. She’s found a therapy specifically for you”, Marta casually told her son.

“What will it be about?” Alexan asked, curious. Up until that point, no one had ever found a way to make him always feel happy and comfortable… And deep down, he thought that would fail too, since there was no cure to his mental illness. An illness… like AIDS, cancer or Ebola… which leads to long periods of suffering to the point of almost committing suicide to end it all. Alexan sometimes would think about it, especially when looking at the blades of knives whenever there was one on the table… Sometimes, he would even gently touch them with his finger or the fork, sensing their sharpness… Would it really be that easy to finish it all… But then, that decision would be final… there would be no going back after that. However, he quickly forgot about it and started looking out of the window at the City, which felt lifeless. The grim, cloudy day seemed to support that idea… Alexan didn’t see any cars on the roads near the highway, which included important state roads. In addition, he and Marta had 5 lanes of highway to basically themselves: usually, at that time, traffic would be paralysed, the queues would be miles long with incredibly long waiting times. That was why there were 5 lanes, but they still weren’t enough… Besides that day, when it felt like there were too many. There were barely any cars on the highway… and many of them were military vehicles, bringing supplies to the front lines or bringing people out of the city to safety… or even soldiers being brought to the front lines, who were probably fully aware that there was an important risk of dying. Dying… like his brother had done just one hour ago or so… Why? Why were so many prominent lives about to be cut short by a senseless war, which would only bring death and suffering… Couldn’t Eggman build Eggmanland on the ocean!? There was plenty of that… He was so immersed in his thoughts that he forgot he had asked a question to his mother.

“Did you hear me?” Marta asked, worried. She saw her son clearly thoughtful, looking outside the window at what were now mountains, where lake Foxine was… That was the last obstacle before Alexan would achieve peace… forever.

Alexan didn’t answer… instead, he kept looking at the mountains nearby… How would that mountains end up under Eggman’s rule? And Lake Foxine? Would an underwater base be built there, or would it still be used by the mad scientist to go for refreshing walks away from the City, like many people from all over the world used to do? He, though, was probably never going to find out.

Marta tried to interpret Alexan’s thoughts and added: “Don’t worry about the others. I have a feeling there won’t be anyone near the lake, no one will see me washing you.” She still wasn’t aware of the Infiniti following her for 10 miles now.

Alexan didn’t answer, instead, he started looking at the mirror on the passenger’s side, kind of worried, but Marta didn’t take any notice of that and interpreted it as Alexan’s way to pass the time.

A few miles afterwards, they took the exit that lead to the lake and got on the mountain roads that would lead to the lakes. To get to the lakes, after taking the exit, they had to drive through a town, get on a state road and, at one point, turn right and drive for an additional mile or so. To Marta’s shock, though, the town, which she expected to be empty because the skiing season had just finished, was full, with a lot of cars driving slowly in a road which barely fit two cars due to parking. Because of that, the Infiniti ended up behind them, with a Peepcar separating the hunted and the hunter. There were also a lot of people on the pavements, who all looked tense and seemingly in panic. At this point, Marta deduced that the whole town must’ve been informed about the brutalities happening on the front lines and started to go to the bunkers, which were the only ones for most of those who lived in the mountains. At one point, the Peepcar turned left into a smaller street, leaving the Infiniti wide open to the mirror’s view. And, indeed, Alexan was still looking at it and, at that point, noticed the strange plate, which was a sideways 8 and nothing else. Alexan had a strange passion for plates and he was fully aware that something was wrong with that plate. Indeed, there was something terribly wrong. Suddenly, he remembered what Axelain said before his tragic death: “In… fini… te…” That sideways 8 had to be an infinity symbol! Was that what Axelain had seen before dying… a car with such a strange plate? Was he trying to warn him about someone driving a certain car, who would kill with such brutality? Because of that, he started shaking in fear: “Mum…” he muttered, clearly showing fear.

“What is it, dear?” His mother asked, worried: why had Alexan suddenly turned nervous?

“Get… drive away…”

His mother didn’t understand why he had made such a bold request. “Why…?”

At that point, they found the road that they had to turn in and turned. They were the only ones to do so. Behind them, the Infiniti slowed down and almost stopped on the road, like a tourist who wanted to read the two signs that indicated the lake and some paths. In reality, he did that to get some distance and, once the Maserati started the first hairpin, got on it.

“We’re… We’re…” Alexan didn’t want to explain his fears for the infinity symbol, since that wouldn’t have made any sense. “…being followed…”

His mother checked the mirror, but she didn’t see anyone. It also started to rain a little bit.

“By who? Alexan, are you hallucinating?” Her tone showed a bit of annoyance and that made Alexan embarrassed.

“NOW, LOOK!” he suddenly screamed and stroked his mother in order to show something. His mother was about to ask “WHAT!?”, but she decided to look out of the car and noticed for a moment, about two hairpins below her, a car going up. Because of that, she slowed down in order to get confirmation at the following hairpin and she did: there was a car following her and she didn’t recognise the type of car, because she had never seen it. Alexan wasn’t hallucinating, he was, once again, right. So, Marta decided to go for the only logical option: since driving more wasn’t an option as that road would lead to a dead end, she decided to slow down and let it through. She explained her plan to Alexan: “I’ll slow down and let him through, so you won’t have to be afraid any more.”

“Mum, don’t!” Alexan screamed, scared. “He’ll kill you!” He feared a drive-by shooting or, even worse, being boxed in and then beaten up to death.

Marta was shocked by Alexan’s unexpected reaction and couldn’t find an explanation to it, so she decided to do it anyway. After a few seconds, the Infiniti was now in their sights. As that seconds passed, Alexan started screaming: “MUM! NO!” more and more, but his mother cut his screams with an anger she had never shown: “CUT IT OUT!”, before adding: “Why do you think he’ll kill me!?”

Alexan stood there, silent and extremely embarrassed: he had disappointed his mother, he thought.

After that, she waited for the overtake, which never came… Alexan was feeling extremely badly, he felt like something awful was about to happen. “Why doesn’t he overtake us, f*cking hell!?” His mother whispered to herself, angrily. To get that answer, she decided that the best thing to do was to… ask the driver.

So, she pulled over and opened the door. “Mum… what the f*ck are you doing!?” Alexan asked, shocked and in extreme panic. “DON’T! HE’LL KILL YOU!” He screamed in agony as Marta ignored him and got out of the car. Alexan thought that was the worst thing she could do and, now, he had to face the fact that he was about to lose his mother… or had he already lost her? That clearly wasn’t Marta, it felt like another person… a stranger who had abducted him and was going to drown him in the lake. Alexan was on the verge of jumping out of the car and running away, but he decided to see how the conversation would go. A conversation that would never happen.

As _Marta_ got closer to the Infiniti, she clearly showed annoyance and wanted to get a word with the driver. As she got closer, though, the Infiniti first roared the engine, a modified V10 engine that sounded like the 2000s F1 cars, as if to intimidate _Marta_. But she didn’t budge and kept getting closer. So, the driver pushed the accelerator so hard, the car skating a little bit on the damp surface, heading straight for _Marta_. As _Marta_ noticed the Infiniti about to run her over, she jumped into the forest near the road and narrowly avoided that beast… and a certain death. While watching, shocked, the Infiniti narrowly avoided the Maserati, stopped on the side of the road, at about 100 km/h (just over 60 mph) and drifted up the hairpins. She could only look in shock at the attempted murder, as the driver quickly got out of her sight.

Alexan, though, wasn’t as shocked, because it was exactly what he expected would have happened… “I knew it…” He whispered to himself, fully aware that his mother should’ve listened to him… But was that really his mother? Or was it a woman who had stolen their car and wanted to bring him in a trap? No, it couldn’t have been: if she worked with the driver of the Infiniti, he wouldn’t have attempted to run her over. But why… Why wasn’t his mother listening to him any more? Did it have to do with Axelain’s death? Was she more strict not just with him, but with herself, too? Was she doing to that to avoid losing her other son? All of these thoughts went through Alexan’s mind, as he tried to interpret his mother’s behaviour.

In the meantime, the rain got harder and harder and Marta, soaking wet, went back to the car. She was, at the same time, angry and afraid: “F*ck this, get out of the car, I’ll wash you under the rain.” Alexan agreed with Marta’s idea and got out of the car: he immediately became wet and, afterwards, his mother started to rub her hand against Alexan’s body in order to get the dry blood and dirt out of Alexan’s body. After a few minutes, they got back in the car and restarted driving back down. They surely were not going to go back up to the lake, considering that the driver of the Infiniti was probably waiting for them. Obviously, they went back down fairly quickly and, while doing so, Alexan constantly looked at the mirrors and up the mountain so as to eventually spot the Infiniti coming back at them. This time, though, the Infiniti did not pop up and, once they got to the town, they noticed it was now much emptier, due to the rain and people reaching their bunkers. Alexan and Marta, however, went back on the highway, where they sped their way to Foxtrot, 15 miles from the mountains. Now, after years of hidden pain and suffering, Alexan was going to obtain peace for the rest of his life… At least, that’s what Marta hoped for her younger son.

Finally, they arrived in Foxtrot and reached Freudir’s house.

“Alexan, am I glad to see you’re OK!” The psychiatrist greeted the young wolf, showing genuine thankfulness. “I’ve heard the east and the north are under attack…” She added.

“Yeah… Our house’s been taken…” Marta said, sighing: just thinking about war made her think about Lorenz and Axelain, who were both gone then. “However, I hope Alexan’s new house will give him a bright future…”

“New… house!? For me!?” Alexan asked, shock to hear that words: living on his own wasn’t even close to his plans. In reality, he wanted to remain in the old house, which was impossible at that moment. At least, it would’ve been better than a bunker with thousands of people…

“Oh, dear… I forgot to tell you… you’re going to live on your own!” She was happy because her son’s future was now really starting to form… but Alexan wasn’t as fond of the idea.

“What… what about you…?” He asked, clearly worried.

“I’ll be fine: I know how to survive.” She answered, calmly. Before she could add any other word, though, Alexan hugged her tightly.

“Are you sure?” He was even more worried.

“100% certain, son… 100%…” She started to doubt that percentage… was she really ready to leave her son behind for good, after losing the rest of the family!? She had always been strong and bravely took on any problem, but at what cost would it come to overcome the toughest and most psychologically demolishing fact: losing her entire family? She’d worked so hard to get to the life she was living then and, in the previous 20 years, she had effectively used all of her will and strength for the family. She had lived for the family, but what happens when the cause of your will to live and to keep going disappears in a matter of hours? Tragedy… She wanted to avoid thinking that, as her son’s behaviour and, sometimes, his frightening words were way more than enough.

“There’s no purpose in my life!” She remember Alexan telling her one day, just before going out for a walk. It was summer and Alexan had finished all of his homework very early. And… why would he always touch the knife with the fork? Was he really testing the sharpness of the knife so that he…? As she was thinking that, her throat and wrist became stiff and she shivered in disgust. No… None of those possibilities would ever happen. She would be alright and the therapy would make Alexan happy… for the first time in 4 years.

While thinking that, Alexan kept hugging her, before the psychiatrist said something that broke the silence: “I understand it is tough to abandon those who you trust, but something has to be done about the situation…” She was ready to explain to Alexan her newest therapy: “You’re going to live with an expert that I know in a house away from the rest of the planet…”

Alexan thought, for a moment, that he was going to space.

The psychiatrist continued: “Your depression and instability is caused by the brutal world outside of you, which, in turn, causes confusion in your brain…”

Alexan’s eyes turned lucid as he heard the word “depression”… Had he really gone so far!? He knew his mental health was bad, but not that critical… He hadn’t even noticed he was so close to death… like a driver looking at his phone with a lorry in front of him on the highway… How would it feel to end up in there…? Yes, she was right: he was depressed. He didn’t even notice he’d just had a suicidal thought… Stealing the car and driving at a high speed on the back of a lorry. Still, Marta didn’t even seem shocked, despite never telling her: was it really that obvious? He had always tried to hide it, but he failed. Well, at least that other secret was still very well kept… Washing the evidence away was really easy.

In the meantime, Freudir went on to explain the technical details of Alexan’s health situation, before saying what Alexan would do in the new house: “Alexan, you will be totally isolated from the rest of the world… including your mother and your friends… because you need to find inner peace. You will not read any newspapers, which only tell negative news; you will not be connected to the Internet; you will not have any way to contact the outside world besides a phone that can be used for emergencies only and your house will be located in a hidden place, miles from the nearest human activity. Here, you will do small tasks, like chores and working the garden, with the expert and…”

Alexan raised his hand like at school in order to intervene: “What if… I screw up?”

“Alexan, I’ve already told you… Perfection does not exist. I admit that I have done a few wrong diagnosis, because I’m learning too… Don’t worry about getting everything right, just do your best. Anyway, each day, for about an hour, you will listen to smoothing music that I’ve found: there are hours worth of music for you. You will feel better with it… I know it, but… Is that fine with you?” She sentenced.

Alexan had to think about it for a little bit, but that last point really convinced him: he used to listen to soothing music through his headphones and he would always feel good while listening and afterwards. After all, during that moments he would dream of having the whole world for himself and, now, he had to chance for that wish to be true. To be alone, to live the life with his own rhythm, a rhythm that didn’t fit with the society he lived in. A slower rhythm, where he could have a lot of time for relax and fun… Mostly the former, anyway.

“I accept.” Alexan convincingly answered.

His mother let out a sigh of relief as she heard the two words: all she wanted now was that her son would find peace for the rest of his life and that was going to happen.

“Good.” Freudir said. “In a few minutes, a van will come to pick you up, Alexan, which will bring you to the location you will live in for a good part of your future.” She then added: “Your mother will not come with you, since the location must be kept hidden to everyone and no one shall know its location… Not even those you trust.”

Alexan understood that thought… “Trust no one” was effectively his motto, with a few rare exceptions, like his mother… Whom he would see for the last time in years. Despite thinking that, he didn’t cry, as the experience in the mountains made him doubt his mother’s ability to protect him: she’d done everything wrong, from trying to let the car through to getting out of the Maserati and becoming vulnerable to being run over, which almost happened. He knew that therapy was the last hope for him, the last protection that protected him from the dark abyss… A place you never get out from.

“I’m afraid you will have to say good-bye to your mother…” She added, with a bit of sadness in her voice. “I’ll leave you alone until the van arrives. It should be here in 5 minutes. I’ll be back when it’s here.” She then left the room and closed the door, leaving Alexan and Marta alone… for the final time. For a minute, they looked at each other’s eyes: Marta’s started to drop tears, but Alexan’s didn’t show any… Had he run out of tears to cry? Probably… That was their worst day of their lives… For Marta, it was worse than the day the economic crisis hit her old insurance company, which made it go bankrupt… She still remembered her colleagues, who were dealing to that day with unemployment… They hadn’t been as lucky as her. For Alexan, that was the worst day since he’d lost it so badly he stained the walls… And the amount of water he had to use that day was probably less that the amount of tears he had dropped that horrible March day.

“Good luck out there, Alexan!” His mother started the conversation, with a hopeful voice. Before Alexan could say anything, though, she added, this time crying: “I’ve failed to protect you! …sob… I hope that house will bring you eternal happiness and relax. And don’t worry about me: I’ll be safe in the bunker. Go, Alexan, happiness awaits!” She then hugged her son even harder, almost crushing him between her arms and chest.

Despite that, he still managed to say: “Don’t worry, mum! You’ve done well, like Axelain: you understood me… And that’s the most important thing for me… Thank you…”

Marta’s tears of sadness became tears of emotion… “Really…?” She asked, sobbing.

“Yes, Marta… Really…” Alexan answered in a thankful voice. He wasn’t sad any more, he was now thankful with his mother… If only he could’ve said “Thank you” to Axelain as well… He would, once he would reach Paradise and meet him there… And he knew he was looking down at him from the sky and saying “That’s my bro!” with the same exuberance he had always shown. After that, they didn’t say anything else, they just waited for Freudir to come back and open the door of the van for Alexan… The van that would drive him to a bright future. That 2 minutes were seemingly inf… No, endless.

“Alexan, it’s time to go.” Dr. Freudir came back in the room and looked at Alexan, happy to tell the news to the young cub. “Pack everything here and we’ll be off soon. Please be quick, we need to get there as soon as possible.” She said, indicating a small suitcase. Alexan put his phone, laptop and microphone in it, before seeing the matrioska that the old lady had given him a few hours earlier… Only a few hours earlier… It felt like days from the satisfaction of helping people… But, he could do it now, one more time.

“Mum… Take this.” Alexan gave the matrioska to Marta. Before Marta could say anything, he added: “This brought luck to an old woman that I’ve helped. It has always brought her luck. I hope it will do the same for you, Marta. Goodbye…”

Marta was in awe, silent, before she hugged Alexan again. “Thanks… Goodbye, darling…” She said before kissing his head.

“Let’s go.” Alexan told Freudir as he grabbed the suitcase. He then got out of the office and Marta looked at her son for the last time in her life… She was hopeful he was going to be happy. After that, she looked at the matrioska and delicately touched it: it was incredibly smooth and it worked perfectly: a fine piece of craftsmanship. She then opened it, seeing a smaller matrioska which, when opened, revealed an even smaller one. After a few more, she saw a small sheet of paper: she opened it. It had a message in Russian that simply read: “У каждой проблемы есть решение” (“Every problem has a solution”). She then wondered what that could mean… But it surely had to do with Alexan, in one way or another. She kept looking at the matrioska as she walked back to the car. Once inside, she saw the van with Alexan in the passenger’s seat driving westwards… She looked at him, and he did, too, showing a smile that would say: “Everything will be alright.”

Alexan was driven for a while westwards: the van got on the motorway until its end, where it became a state road. During the whole travel, he kept looking outside, despite the rain, looking at the agricultural villages of the west: a bunch of small villages with wavy fields of different colours, like the ones near Bath. He also looked in the mirror, hoping not to see the Infiniti: luckily, it didn’t appear in the mirror. Once the highway/motorway became a state road, they started driving through small and gorgeous towns, with differently coloured houses that ranged from white to pink. Alexan had always wished to live in towns like that, where everyone knew everyone and you could breath clean air. After all, they were only 5 miles from the rocky coast, the western boundary of the continent. If they weren’t in a small city, the van would drive through beautiful, yet incredibly wet, dark green and smooth hills, where you could run freely. At one point, the van turned into a local road, which was used a lot by locals. Still, like the villages, all the roads were empty, but that probably had to do with the rain… Hopefully… How would Eggman turn these beautiful and peaceful villages? Just imagining the disappearance of those villages reminded him of the brutalities of war, but how many miles was he from the eastern neighbourhoods? How were those who he had saved? And to think that… all of that happened in a day! He remembered the sun rising, in the east… Now, he was in the west, where the sun would soon set. He wondered how close he was to his destination: if he were close, then that would mean he would achieve the dream of living in the peaceful west of the continent… A wish he had thought would’ve never been granted.

All of a sudden, the car turned into a terrible dirt road. Alexan couldn’t even see the road, since it was starting to be invaded by grass: that must’ve been abandoned for a while. Because of that, the vehicle started bouncing a little bit, but it had off-road tyres, so it managed to drive on it. After a bit, it stopped: why were they stopping in the middle of an abandoned dirt road near the coast? Alexan started to be afraid a little bit… What if he had gotten kidnapped by maniacs? No… That was too extreme and unlikely. He then saw the reason they had stopped: there was a barrier made of very old wood, since it was extremely dark. The driver got out of the van and did something that Alexan didn’t understand. Suddenly, the barrier opened, like a technologically advanced one. That’s where Alexan understood everything: the conditions of the road and the looks of the barrier wanted to fool strangers into thinking everything was abandoned. In reality, it was perfectly functional. In addition, there must’ve been a deal with the locals to keep the road a secret: they would probably tell strangers who wanted to get on the _abandoned_ road to keep out of it. Anyway, the van restarted and, soon enough, after a turn, the road became a proper dirt road still in use. At one point, Alexan spotted a house in the middle of the very wet, grassy, dark green hills: it looked like one of those he had seen when he had gone to holiday in Dogmark. It was made of white wood, had two windows on the ground floor and one in the middle of the top floor, where the roof was. The house looked as good as new and it clearly wasn’t abandoned: that had to be the place he was going to live in for years to come. He also noticed other dirt roads, which made like a small system of dirt roads… all for him and the expert, who was probably waiting for him at that home. Once the van got closer to the home, Alexan was certain, but he also spotted the coast about 200 m (656 ft) from the house, behind a small hill: that was awesome, he had always dreamed of living in such a place, surrounded by green hills and near the coast… kind of like Green Hill Zone, 50 or so miles from there: he had no idea there had just been a mysterious sandstorm there.

When they parked right in front of the house, he saw that the door was open and there was a light purple woman dog inside, sitting on a comfortable sofa. She was surrounded by wooden walls and roofs and all of the furniture inside was fairly traditional and medium-high quality. In addition, he could see the staircase that lead upstairs and the kitchen, on the other side from the entrance of the living room.

“Violet, I’m here with the boy.” The driver got out of the car and told the person who was inside. While saying so, he told Alexan with his body language to get out of the car. Alexan did that, he went to grab the suitcase with the help of the driver, who has holding an umbrella, and stood right in front of the entrance. At this point, he clearly saw Violet: a woman dog in her mid-40s, who wore small, round reading glasses and a flowery dress. She also looked like a very kind and well-mannered woman. “So, are you the young Alexan Fairbanks?” She asked with a voice that belonged more to a 60 year old.

“Yes, ma’am…” Alexan said, as he put his hands behind his back and blushed a little bit.

“Ho, ho, don’t be shy, young boy!” She said with a happy voice. “Mrs. Freudir has asked me to look after you, young Fairbanks. Come in!” She invited Alexan in by letting him through.

Alexan slowly stepped into the house: just like the outside, it was a small villa made entirely of wood: actually, even some of the furniture was in wood, like the chairs, the tables and the libraries. There was also a very comfortable sofa with a TV in front of it, with many libraries surrounding the TV. This was all on the left from the entrance, while on the right were the stairs that led upstairs. Afterwards, the two animals went into the kitchen, which was a pleasant wooden kitchen, with a round wooden table in the middle and all the cooking furniture around it. There was also a window looking out into the last hills of the continent, before they would become the sea. The kitchen was one of three rooms that all stood at the end of the living room and a small hall, on the other side of the entrance, which looked at the sea: in the middle, there was the toilet, which was the only room that wasn’t made of wood. It had a shower box, a bath, a sink, everything that a normal bathroom would have. Finally, at its right, there was a big bedroom with a big bed in the middle, a lamp on each side of the bed on a table and almost all of the walls were covered by wardrobes, besides one which had another window that looked, once again, on the hills and the sea. In addition, in front of the bedroom, there were some stairs that led downstairs, presumably to the basement.

“This is the floor where I live. In fact, this is my bedroom: it’s a king-sized bed just in case you would like to sleep with me.” Violet explained, slowly and kindly.

“What about…?” Alexan asked as he indicated the stairs that led downstairs, still a bit shyly.

“These? Oh, they lead to the basement. There’s nothing there, I just throw everything that is old there. You know, the recycling truck never comes by… This house is completely isolated from the rest of the world… No Internet, no phone signal, just a TV where I can watch some movies.”

“And for food?” Alexan asked, curious.

“I farm it: all these hills around us are mine and, soon, ours.” She quickly answered. “The hills towards the sea, I kept them at a natural state, while the other hills are used for growing wheat, fruit, wine… for which you’ll have to wait for…” she joked “We also raise some wild animals who haven’t evolved, like chicken, cow, goose, and so on.”

“I see…” Alexan just said, interested in the conversation.

“Anyway, I think it’s time to show you your floor.” She told the wolf cub as she started to go upstairs.

“MY floor!?” Alexan asked, surprised. For his whole life, he had to share even the bedroom with Axelain, but now, he had not only a bedroom, but a whole floor for himself… No, it was probably going to be just a bedroom.

“Yes, Fairbanks. Your own floor. You will live there on your own and I will visit it only to give you the prescribed therapies. When you’re up there, imagine that is your own house.”

His own house? Alexan wasn’t even done with school… And school!? He obviously couldn’t go to school if he lived in a house in the middle of nowhere. What was he going to do for the whole day, without studying, homework, or his laptop, which he could’ve left at home since there was no Internet connection.

“What about school?” Alexan showed his worries to Violet.

“We’ll get to that soon. Don’t worry, Konstanz thought about it, too.”

Alexan’s face showed confusion.

“Oh, right, I’m sorry…” She quickly corrected herself. “Konstanz is Dr. Freudir’s name: I’ve known her for… a decade, if I remember correctly. We studied Psychology at the University of Metropolis together. I, however, decided not to become a psychologist and wanted to just help Freudir. I was her assistant for a few months and covered another continent: I would greet the patients and Freudir would give them the required therapy. Then, I became a teacher at a school in New Sealland, far from here, for another 3 years. Finally, when she met you, she asked me to find a house that was completely isolated from the rest of the world. For the last year, I looked and looked, until the old owner of this house died and his sons put it on sale: I immediately bought it and refurnished it… I finished 2 weeks ago.” She then explained.

While explaining that, Alexan arrived to a small hall with, once again, three rooms: on the left was the toilet, which was a bit smaller than the one downstairs and lacked the washing machine, but it still had a bath and a shower box. There was, however, a diagonal wall on the left, which indicated he was just below the roof. The same thing was happening on the room on the far right, some sort of a study room: there was a desk with a chair (all wooden, obviously) and a small lamp on it, with the diagonal wall in front of it. Behind it, there were wooden libraries filled with books and text books. Alexan peaked in the room, turned on the light and looked at the books: the text books were exactly the ones that he was using at school. He was delighted to see that and couldn’t hold a smile, which Violet noticed: “We all knew school was fundamental for you, so we bought all the necessary books, plus a lot more that we think will educate you perfectly. Each weekday, for a couple of hours, I will have a lesson with you outside, in the small balcony on the right of the building: the entrance is right next to my bedroom.” Alexan tried to think about seeing a door, but he had totally missed that, he was thinking about the stairs that led downstairs to the basement. Did they really lead to a storage? Probably… Anyway, if she ever invited him downstairs, he would never accept, since something in the answer that Violet had given him looked… off. Her answer looked clearly rushed, but well-thought, as if she had been training on how to answer that question. Was that room being used for other… purposes?

Alexan then bashed his head with his hand, without having Violet notice. “Stupid idiot, why do you f*cking doubt everything!?” He thought to himself. “This place truly is in the middle of nowhere and… if she had been conducting some sort of illegal activity, Freudir wouldn’t have sent me here! What a f*cking s*ithead you are, Alexan! Change your mentality, or of course you’ll jump off the cliff if you don’t make any friends! You’re such a f*cking idiot!” His thoughts became more and more rougher and filled with curse words, as he kept criticizing himself harder and harder with stronger words. “Are you looking for death, f*cker, or do you want to live the life you’d always dreamed!? Or… is your dream death!? F*cking hell, son of a b*tch, start looking in the good of each person, because everyone has a bad side… You do, too, s*ithead! You’re so f*cking lucky you weren’t caught that time!” All of these harsh sentences circled around Alexan’s mind, some of which had a harsher tone compared to the others, without Violet noticing, as she was waiting for Alexan in the last room. He knew, however, that this had to stop, so he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. For a minute, he slowly inhaled and exhaled.

“Alexan, is everything fine?” Violet went back to his room, worried.

“Yeah… Yeah… I was just… checking the books.” Alexan lied and Violet believed him.

“OK. Come here, you don’t want to miss your bedroom, I’m sure.” She added, smiling.

Alexan followed here to the middle room, which was going to be his bedroom. As soon as he entered, he immediately noticed there were two beds, one on each side, right next to the angle of the room, with a table in the middle. On the table, there was a lamp and, right behind it, the window. Despite being wet due to the rain, Alexan clearly could see the last hills, which abruptly stopped and became the vast ocean. It was truly a fantastic way, even with rain, let alone with the sun! It was like the idyllic landscapes he would sometimes think of in order to fall asleep more easily. Alexan got closer to the window and the table. At this point, he noticed a wardrobe right next to the door and, on the sides where the beds were, two beautiful paintings depicting sea landscapes were hanging right over the beds. It was truly the room he had always wished… Besides for the fact there were two beds… Was the other one for someone else? Was another patient going to share the same therapy with him.

“Mrs. Violet… Why are there two beds?” Alexan asked, shyly.

Violet immediately answered: “Fairbanks, you can choose whichever side suits you best: both beds are for you and I will never sleep here, therefore you can freely sleep in one of the two.” In the meantime, she sat on a bed and showed how the lamp worked. “Moreover…” She added, indicating something on the table.

Alexan noticed there was some sort of headphone plug on the angles of the table, the ones closest to the bed… But where were the headphones? They surely weren’t for a smartphone, since there was no Internet connection and, therefore, it wasn’t needed… Speaking of that, there was a home phone from the late ‘90s-early 2000s, whose screen read: “Charged”. Alexan thought he could use it in order to call the emergency services or Violet, if he needed her.

Violet went on with the explanation: “This is a plug where you will put the headphones given to you, which are in the wardrobe near the door. The headphones are long enough to reach the whole bed, so you can choose the most comfortable position for you to listen to the smoothing music prescribed by Freudir. And that’s all there is to know.” She concluded.

Alexan smiled a little bit as he thought about the house he’d just explored: it was a wonderful house, with everything he had always wanted, like a beautiful view, a room for himself, a house isolated from the rest of the world, without any strangers’ interference… Besides Violet, for whom he showed respect, but friendliness, like he would do with the teachers… Before the robbery… Speaking of that… Would the leader of that ruthless band of robbers ever find him there? He knew there was some security installed, like the road and lever that would make everyone think that the road was abandoned… But wouldn’t they be happy if they robbed an empty house? Alexan, though, thought that Violet and Freudir had thought about all of that aspects and knew how to make him more comfortable. Speaking of comfort…

“Wow, it’s already 5 p.m.!” Violet exclaimed as she looked at her ‘90s watch. “This is the time to show you how the headphones work. Choose a bed and we’ll get everything started.”

Alexan was surprised by the sudden exclamation and laid down on the bed he was sitting on, the one on the right from the entrance. Violet went to the wardrobe and picked up a small pair of headphones, which had fairly long wires. So long, in fact, that they could easily choke… Why was he thinking about death again!? He had everything he wanted and, now that he had the chance to enjoy it, wouldn’t take it!? Alexan, though, tried to remove that thoughts and closed his eyes. In the meantime, Violet plugged the headphones to the strange plugger and told Alexan, kindly: “Please, put them on.”

Alexan slowly put them on.

“Use this to regulate the volume.” She added, indicating a small thing on the wire which had a couple of buttons.

Alexan nodded.

“Perfect. Now, close your eyes and let all of the tension out. I will close the door and I won’t disturb you. Once the music ends, it will be dinner time, so I’ll wait for you downstairs. See you later, then.”

Alexan didn’t say anything, he just closed his eyes and waited for the music to come to his ears. He was lying on the bed, like a dead body, face up, looking at the ceiling… if he had his eyes open. A minute later, incredibly smoothing music hit his ears at just the right volume. As soon as Alexan heard that, he thought it was beautiful… That was exactly the music that would make him relax the most. In a couple of minutes, Alexan imagined himself in idyllic landscapes, like on top of a mountain, looking at the mountains around him and feeling on top of the world. An empty world, filled with just nature… and himself. What a gift nature had given him. He looked at the slightly lower mountains, which seemingly extended for the whole planet… and the sky: there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and the light blue sky was seemingly… endless… Afterwards, he was in a green forest, with the sound of a small river breaking the silence. The sun’s rays would fit perfectly within each leaf of the forest… Once again, wonderful. As he found himself in many more idyllic landscapes, he felt tears dropping from his eyes… Tears of commotion, tears that brought away all the tension that had accumulated in him during the whole day… My goodness, just for a day. In that world, there was no war, there was just himself… and nature, showing its best just at him. Alexan moved slightly in the following 90 minutes, as he felt the notes of the music entering his brain and caressing him, as if they were saying: “Calm down, brain… Calm down… It’s OK…” For that 90 minutes, he felt like he was in paradise, away from all the brutalities of the planet and with only the good that the planet had to offer, like nature. It had been years since he hadn’t felt so good, probably even before the robbery. Well, he had felt good sometimes in the past 4 years, but that was the best he’d ever felt, maybe even for the rest of his life. It was truly paradise, everything he had hoped for was there and it was… perfect. He was right, perfection did exist. As the tears slowly dropped from his closed eyes, he could feel a smile in his face… and then, he almost fell asleep.

Suddenly, the music stopped, but Alexan wasn’t angry at all. On the contrary, he was incredibly relaxed. For the first time in his life, he felt totally relaxed and in peace with himself. He was so relaxed that not even distracting sounds in the night (which were the things he hated the most) would make him mad… He would just think about the 90-minutes of paradise he had enjoyed… And he was probably going to enjoy them for many more days to come. When the music stopped, he took off the headphones and looked at the window: it had stopped raining and there was now a sunset right at the window… He could gaze the sun slowly touching the sea, making part of the sea orange, almost red. He looked at it, happy… With the sun, the day was ending… and so was a life of constant worries. He then turned around, showing his shoulders to the sun, leaving Axelain, Marta, Lorenz, Infinite and Eggman behind.

Finally, he went downstairs to have dinner: a new life had just begun for Alexan, a life of total relax and no worries.

Eventually, though, duty calls everyone… and, one day, it was going to reach Alexan… But he didn’t even consider when it would come. All he could think of was, for once, happy thoughts filled with life. He was happy… and he was going to make sure that call would have to wait.

**Author's Note:**

> !!! READ THIS ONLY IF YOU HAVE READ ALL OF THE CHAPTERS !!!  
This story is currently on hold, since my fantasy has run out at the moment and I've got other interests, which deter me from continuing the story. I hope you understand.  
Anyway, I wanted to publish this story a week earlier, but school got in the way, so I'm releasing it now. Originally, I thought it was going to be about 30,000 words long (like my other one), but Chapter 3 became so long I was actually shocked. To put this on a perspective, I'm still planning 1 or 2 chapters for Act 1, which doesn't even get to the main game! And then, after Act 2, which I need to work on as I need to plan the dialogues for 10 contrasting personalities, I was planning a lot more chapters for Act 3. Obviously, I can't continue and I will take a break from the story. Thanks for understanding and thank you for reading the story. I hope you enjoyed it.


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